John chapter 19, verse 38. After these things, that is, after Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission; so he came and took away the body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes about 75 pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen clothes with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

Now we are in, as you can see, our last passage in our Easter series of Christ reigning. Before we go there today, I need to spring off of this passage and call your attention to a challenge that faces the Christian church. We believe, as our sign testifies, we believe in the literal, physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. We do not believe in some spirit ethereal resurrection. I’ve mentioned this before, and I don’t wish to labor it, but it’s very important.

Years ago, we had a man, a very good man. He was in our church for a decade. He was a councilman. He loved the Lord. I’m sure he’s in heaven today since he passed away some years ago. We have our question and answer period once in a while, and someone brought up the idea, a question of cremation, and how does your body get resurrected in cremation, etc. Not a new question, by the way. Augustine was dealing with that in the 5th century. What happens to the body after it decays? And during the conversation, this man, who had been in church all of his life, spoke up and said, well, it’s just our spirit that’s resurrected, isn’t it, and not our body. And I was dumbfounded that a person who has sat in the Christian church all his life did not know we believe in a physical, bodily resurrection.

And this is why I started the grave. If Jesus really died then it is real; He came back to life, and if He didn’t come back to life as you’ll see, this is something that contradicts all of our faith. Now, there are within the boundaries of Christendom people who say outright deny that Jesus was raised from the dead. Well, that’s a biological impossibility. Pastor, nobody can come back to life after they’re dead. Of course, it’s a biological impossibility for human beings, but it is not impossible for God.

And Tim Keller in this little book, I’ve referred to it several times, “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross,” through this series and has all these different Christian voices talking about the suffering of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ. But in this book, Tim Keller describes watching a PBS documentary where a minister was asked, do you believe Jesus was raised from the dead? And the man responded by saying, the purpose and the personality and the power that were in Jesus continues so that today He has arisen in living presence and possibility. It’s a yes or no answer. It’s a yes or no question. Do you believe Jesus rose from the dead? Yes or no?

And when you get that kind of double talk, you already know there’s something wrong in the picture. But Tim Keller, by the way, for those who don’t know, Tim Keller’s deceased now. He died a year or so ago of pancreatic cancer but was a long-term pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan, in the middle of one of our major cities where sin and brokenness abound. And he was a successful minister there. He says that he concluded the man was suggesting the purpose of Jesus lives on, but that Jesus Himself is still physically dead.

And this is what many people have. Well, what’s really important, Pastor, is the spirit of Jesus, the values of Jesus. And we really don’t need to get into these doctrinal issues of whether He did or didn’t come out of the tomb. But this is not what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:17. He says if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. And by the way, as we’ll come back to that, stay with your outline, Pastor.

Now, Paul’s historical context demands when Paul says that in 1 Corinthians, it demands a literal, literal physical resurrection. Let me tell you three reasons why that’s true. First, in that culture nobody wanted you to come back from the dead in a body. They thought that when you die, you are freed from the body. And they asked the question, why would you want to come back into a prison you’ve just been released from? That what makes the resurrection so unique is nobody was looking for it, nobody was expecting it.

Even the Jews who believed in the resurrection believed it was something way out, way out in the future, and that no one person would ever be resurrected alone. Everybody would be resurrected at the last day but not somebody in the middle of history. And so when you say well, it wasn’t a real literal, this is Paul’s context. They are expecting; he is describing a real, literal physical resurrection.

Secondly, Paul cites witnesses that saw the resurrected Christ. They saw him. Notice this from 1 Corinthians. So let me say quickly, this is repetitious, many of you know this already. 1 Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul, almost every scholar on the planet agrees and affirms that it was written in the middle of the first century, within two decades of the life of Christ. Even liberal scholars say this book was written by the Apostle Paul in the middle of the first century, within 20 years of Christ’s life.

And here Paul says: Christ was buried; he was raised on the third day; and then he appeared to Cephas, which is Peter, then to the twelve very important, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep, then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. Now again, all commentators agree that when he says he appeared to 500 people most of whom are alive, he’s saying if you don’t believe me go talk to them.

I thought about it this morning how many major events have occurred in the world since I’ve been alive and at least remembered snippets of, at least the Kennedy assassination, the Martin Luther King assassination, the bombing of the Beirut Lebanon Marine barracks, 9-11 almost all of us if you’re over 20 anyway remember some earth-shattering event, and this is what’s happening. Paul is writing within 20 years of Christ’s life, and he says there are people who are alive who saw him after he came out of the grave.

This is not a spiritual thing; it is a literal bodily resurrection. Now among those witnesses were the twelve, and we see in Luke as they were talking about these things Jesus himself stood among them and said to them peace to you. But they were frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet that it is I myself.

And then he goes on, touch me and see. People in that day, I know today we believe that spirits and so forth can take physical corporeal form but in that day they did not believe that. They believed that the spirit was intangible, ethereal. And here he says here touch me touch my hands touch my feet and see. It’s a natural question mark that they have in their mind but Jesus proves that it is a physical body that has come out of the grave.

And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet and he said to them have you anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and he ate it before them. This is not something spirits do; this is a physical literal glorified resurrected body. And when people say well, you know we don’t really have to believe in that, Paul says you do have to believe in this that this is what the gospel teaches: Christ died and was resurrected physically.

Now today’s message, Christ reigning from the tomb, is unique when contrasted to the other four messages about Christ reigning during the Easter season. We have examined Christ reigning at the Last Supper reigning in the garden reigning during his judicial trials, and reigning from the cross. Now in each of these examples we had Scripture.

We had passages of Scripture that we could go to and we could look at and we could infer and we could draw biblical principles from. Today, we have none; there’s not one verse of Scripture that says what happened while Jesus was in the tomb. Not one. We’re not given any kind of insight whatsoever about that.

And that might provoke how we’re going to talk about this morning. Well I’m glad you asked. We’re going to deal with that. Before we do, I have to tell you there are no passages of Scripture describing what happened to Jesus during the three days that His body laid in the tomb.

This is in contrast to Word of Faith practitioners like Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen who say that Jesus went to hell and suffered, that He was tormented that He had to battle the devil, who is the second most powerful force in the universe according to their theology. And this is one of the reasons why I tell you folks you shouldn’t be listening to those people.

I find it amazing. I labor; I labor. I labor. I quote Scripture. I quote historic figures and you still won’t believe me, and yet somebody who’s teaching falsehood left and right people gravitate toward them embrace them buy their books watch their programs. Well they make me feel good they’re making you feel good with a lie.

Jesus Christ did not go to hell when He died. And I will show you that. So these kinds of graphic descriptions of what Jesus went through after he died have absolutely no scriptural basis whatsoever. So you ask, and rightly so, where does this viewpoint come from then? Well there is a passage or two in the Bible that is misused to advocate for that view.

And here’s one of those from 1 Peter 3:18 and 19: Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. And here’s the important point in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.

And this is the argument that people make hey look right there it says Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison from which we infer that He went to hell and preached to the people in hell. Now, this is and I can’t spend a lot of time here but this is one of the most complex and highly debated passages in all of the Bible both in the ancient church and in the modern church.

What in the world is Peter talking about? And R.C. Sproul describes the complexity in his commentary in this way: he says Peter says that Jesus preached to the spirits in prison who formerly were disobedient, and then he makes a reference back to the days of Noah. So the passage generates a number of questions which spirit is in view the spirit of God or the human spirit?

Who are the spirits in prison where does the prison, what does the prison indicate or where is that prison located where this preaching took place? Finally why did this preaching take place? Now this is one of those passages and by the way, this is one of the most difficult passages in the Bible. But let me give you four quick points.

Number one there’s no majority view what does that mean a majority view means that ten scholars sit down they look at the text they unpack it and eight of them say this is what it means. That’s the majority view. There’s no such thing like that in this text it’s all over the map, and I’ve got four or five commentaries downstairs and every one of them was detailing how complex this passage is.

Secondly each one of the questions I’ve read breeds other questions we try to answer this one well what about that? What about this? What about that? And you end up with all kinds of stuff. Thirdly, you and I are told where Jesus’ spirit was during those three days. It’s very simple in scripture.

What happens on the cross before he dies what does he say? Father into your hands I commit my spirit his spirit did not go to hell. He gave his spirit to God and God who we are to trust would not have said okay now, I’m going to take care of you son but you’ve got to go to hell and suffer for three days and battle against demons for three days that would not sound like committing our trust to the goodness and keeping power of God.

This is what the scripture tells us his spirit was with God his body was in the tomb but his spirit was with God. Into your hands I commit my spirit now then finally the text we’ve just read also tells us notice it again in which he was made alive in the Spirit that’s a reference to the resurrection so this preaching happened after the whoever it was to and wherever it happened and why ever it happened, it happened after the resurrection therefore that passage can give us no insights into what happened while he was in the grave.

It cannot be used that way. Now you say then this passage has no bearing on the topic of Christ reigning from the tomb okay well then where would we draw a demonstration of him doing so? How would, what are we going to look for because we don’t have any scripture telling us what happened while he was in the tomb.

How are we, what are we going to do? Well I will give you this morning and I will try to draw this out for you. Christ was reigning in the tomb from the perspective of his role in his resurrection his role in his resurrection. Now what do you mean by that pastor?

Now this is difficult to describe because the scriptures credit all three members of the triune God with the resurrection, and now we’re dealing with the Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost but I want you to notice last week we noted Christ reigned over the timing of his death he did not die when the Romans would have killed him he died before that.

He gave up the ghost before his death occurred. And this is the understanding and this is the consideration of this idea that Christ was reigning in the resurrection. He gave up the ghost that was the timing of his death. Now with the resurrection, he controls the duration of his death.

Now notice this. The scriptures can bear this out Romans 8 verse 11 if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you. Notice the contrast between Father who gives the Spirit it is the Father and the Spirit in this text that are seen to be bringing Christ back to life.

There we have two members of the Trinity but now let us go to a passage we’ve looked at several times in our journey from John chapter 10 For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord listen I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again please get that.

I have authority to lay it down I have authority to take it up again this charge this command I have received from my Father I have been given a command to exercise the authority to lay down my life and to exercise the authority to take my life up again listen to this very important the word biblical commentary says that in the fourth gospel, the resurrection is the completion of the works given by the Father to the Son to do.

They are part and parcel of the works he’s doing. John Gill who died in 1771 says that God commanded Christ to take His life again command this charge I received from my Father to take the life that I have laid down so the resurrection is part and parcel of the works that He was doing.

Christ is reigning from or in the tomb, whichever way you would prefer that I use he is reigning because He has a role in the resurrection of the body. He was an active participant not a passive recipient.

Now John hints at this authority earlier in the Gospel of John listen to this passage after he cleanses the temple the Jews said to Him what sign do You show us for doing these things? Jesus answered them destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up the Jews then said it has taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days but He was speaking about the temple of His body now children please notice it.

And this is one of those examples where every word has significance please notice he does not say if you destroy this temple, it will be raised again. He says if you destroy this temple I will raise it again and what is He talking about? The temple of his body it is the temple of His body that He’s mentioning here.

And he says if you destroy this that is if you take this life He doesn’t just say if you take this life, it will come back to life. He says I will raise it up again and we see then his role in the resurrection of his body. And this is the example that I call your attention to that shows he is reigning even while the body lays in the tomb.

John Calvin in his commentary on John 2:19 says here Christ claims for Himself the glory of His resurrection. Christ is reigning from or in the tomb whichever way you would prefer that I use He is reigning because He has a role in the resurrection of the body now this word that John uses in chapter 2:19 means to rouse from sleep.

Now this is not soul sleep as our Seventh-day Adventist and Jehovah Witnesses suggest that when you die your soul just goes to sleep and you’re unconscious until the day of the resurrection. That’s not what that means. It’s a metaphor it’s a euphemism for Christian death. How do we know that?

Well let’s go back over to John chapter 11 and let’s talk about Jesus, John chapter 11, and let’s talk about Jesus and Lazarus. Jesus says in that passage and I didn’t put it down but I’ll jump over there real quickly to make sure I don’t misstate anything for those who are listening now a certain man was ill a Lazarus of Bethany the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was ill. And the sister sent to Him saying Lord he whom you love is ill but when Jesus heard it, he said this illness does not lead to death it is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

And when he heard this, he stayed two more days in the place where He was then after this he said to the disciples let us go to Judea again and after saying these things, he said to them our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep but I go to wake him and the disciples said Lord if he has fallen asleep he will recover.

Now Jesus had spoken of his death that they thought he meant taking rest and sleep. Jesus himself verse 14 then Jesus told them plainly Lazarus has died but Jesus doesn’t say that at first does He? He says he’s asleep it means sleep is a euphemism for Christian death the body is dead the body is quiet the body is lifeless but our spirits are with God in heaven we are not asleep waiting forever to the day of the way off in the future resurrection.

And this phrase to rouse from sleep is used 70 times in the New Testament for the resurrection Christ is being raised, but he says he will do that I will raise up this temple. I will do it and thus we see if I can pause for just a moment children we are not talking about a good teacher who did some nice things.

We are talking about the Son of the living God who came and died for our sins he says I will exercise the authority that’s mine as part of the Godhead to bring this body back to life. Now it is clear this is obviously woven into Trinitarian mystery the workings of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which none of us will ever fully grasp.

And aren’t you glad your salvation does not depend on your ability to completely grasp the concepts of the Trinity nevertheless Jesus limits the duration of his death and by the way he predicted that again and again when He said I will rise again on the third day. There’s a limit there’s a limit now the second area of Christ reigning in regard to His reigning over death reigning in regard to the resurrection is over our resurrection.

Listen to this passage from Philippians chapter 3: Our citizenship is in heaven and from it, we await a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to Himself he’s going to raise us from the dead even as He raised himself a member of the divine Trinity even as He raises himself He’s going to raise you and me.

Now listen I don’t have time to give you the whole encyclopedia here but in 1 Corinthians Paul talks a lot about this. If Christ isn’t raised, he’s got no power to raise you if the dead are not raised if Christ wasn’t raised from the dead then the dead are not raised and if the dead are not raised you’re still in your sins.

You’ve got no hope do you know what one of the central things of the early church that made them capable of staring death in the face and not being moved by it because they believed in the resurrection that after death their bodies would come back to life and it takes all the power from the hand of the enemy you can’t hurt me oh, you can kill this body.

You can afflict me you can torture me you can persecute me you can do all kinds of bad things to this but you can’t hurt me because I will be raised again by the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to suggest we need a little bit refresher in that kind of conviction far too many Christians including many of you gathered today have way too much faith in political systems and political hopefulness.

We get behind the right candidate, we’ll see change the right candidate is Jesus the world changes cultures change countries change and if you live in fear of what the culture is doing I said the other night about sin. I’m not confessing to me I’m not here with the arsenic this guy was built up to a new arsenic and the guy across the street was built up for the place or something.

The other was, and this guy over here was built up for the place or something. And all they do is set us against each other we’re suddenly mad at our neighbor who we know nothing about because they have deep convictions of a different nature on a political issue and we do not think for a moment whether God is frowning or smiling on us are there legitimate political questions yes but hating your neighbor is not what God would call us to.

When we die Christ is going to raise us again when we don’t know. We don’t know how far away it is, how long it’s going to be but He’s going to raise us again now what does the resurrection of the body entail? First it is a reaffirmation of the value of the body do you know that God created the body according to Genesis and then breathed life into it?

Have you ever heard it said maybe you’ve said it yourself well I’m just a spirit in a body no. That’s wrong. You are body and spirit and God intends to raise up the body at the end if all you were were a spirit after you died God wouldn’t care about the body therefore Jesus would not have had to come out of the grave to demonstrate His power to raise us again from the dead.

This is the great hope of the Christian church we are not spirits in bodies we are body and spirit. Many people in our culture today ask this question well what difference does it make to God who I sleep with? God cares about the body he cares about what you do with the body he cares about how you live in the body.

He says we’re going to give an account for what we’ve done in the body the body is very important to God did you know the Bible says your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost that’s why we’re commanded to live a certain way that’s why our personal practical holiness is enjoined upon the Christians.

This is why we’re supposed to walk differently and have different values in the world around us because we are temples of the Holy Spirit. The body is important to God now let me read this passage and I’ve put it in from the New Living Translation not to hold one version up above another but just for clarity listen to how it says 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1 through 5 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down that is when we die and leave this earthly body, we will have a house in heaven an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.

We grow weary in our present bodies now our young folks don’t they haven’t got there yet. They don’t know what it is to be weary of the present body amen? But those of us you know, you reach a certain age and I’m very fortunate that I don’t have to have a lot of medicines but you got to have a prescription drug plan after you get on Medicare and you got to have supplemental and every time you have an ache or something jumps out of place you think oh Lord there’s another medical bill there’s another I know, we’re tired.

And some of you get up and you hurt when you get up and you hurt when you go down and this is what Paul is talking about. We grow weary in our present bodies and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing for we will put on heavenly bodies we will not be spirits without bodies right there it is if you thought you were just a spirit after you died, you just float around eternity right there it says we will have bodies.

And while we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and we sigh and it isn’t always about physical stuff. We groan and sigh about cultural and spiritual issues as well we we we we we we we, we long to put on our new bodies so that these living bodies will be swallowed up by life we want those new bodies peace he says.

And that’s what we’re going to have because Christ has come out of the grave listen then and this is a little redundant here, this is a new version of the old body so I’m one of those people that probably doesn’t like everything about my current bodily appearance I go to shave brush my teeth and there are these bags under my eyes now if I had money I don’t have any money but if I had money I’d get some nicks and tucks I really would.

I’d go I’d talk about my turkey neck nobody seems to be able to see that but when me and Scott do the videos, I just dread looking at those videos because there’s this turkey neck on that guy where where is that? And we think oh boy and you know if you’re short you think I’d like to be tall if you’re tall you think I’d like to be short.

If you’re skinny, you think you’d like to have a little meat. If you’re meaty, you think you’d have a lot of light, a little bit less meat and I can’t give you all the details of the new body but it’s you how are you going to recognize your little loved ones that have gone on before you if they’ve got a body that’s not like the one they have?

You’re going to get to heaven and look around. I don’t recognize any of these people. I’m going to look for mom, grandma, aunt, uncle whatever brother sister.

I don’t know how you’re going to find them if they don’t look like they look now it’s a perfect body it’s no longer susceptible to death and disease and weakness and pain yes all of that but there’s a limitation to how much the body can change physically.

But it will be free of sin. It will be free of the consequences of sin including age and sickness and all of that and death now 1 Corinthians again from the New Living Translation chapter 15 a new version of the old body let me reveal a wonderful secret, Paul says we will not all die but we will all be transformed I got to pause we will not all die there will be Christians alive when Jesus comes again.

I don’t know when He’s coming. We can’t make any predictions it could be soon it could be far away but there will be God will do His work in the earth all of us Christians if I can infer that, all of us Christians will not die because when He comes we’ll be transformed without death there will be a church God has a plan for planet earth children.

He has a plan for planet earth listen to what He says. We will not all die but we will all be transformed it will happen in a moment in the blink of an eye for when the trumpet sounds those who have died will be raised to live forever and we who are living will also be transformed for our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die and our corruptible bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.

And how by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself he’s going to raise us. He’s going to if you’re dead, He’s going to give you a new body if you’re still alive, He’s going to transform the body you have and forevermore we will be on to all pain, all heartache, all hurt now then does that really make any difference to the way you live your life day to day please I don’t know how to say this except to say it this way it is a travesty if the only time we talk about the resurrection is on Easter because it’s not a yearly experience.

It’s a daily one. Now listen again from Tim Keller he says on one hand, the resurrection is a fact to be believed on the other hand, is an experience to connect with if you have one without the other if you believe the resurrection is a historical fact, it happened but never experienced the resurrection personally or if you think of the resurrection as a spiritual experience but have no regard for the fact then you come out with a form of religion that has no power.

It can’t affect you. It can’t affect your children it can’t affect your neighbor it can’t affect your country it can’t affect your culture now he says when I talk about having a passion for Christ, it’s like my glasses this is Hill’s illustration.

He says I don’t spend all my time talking about or looking at my glasses but I do spend all my time looking through them and if my relationship between me and my glasses gets off if they get too far down my nose or get dirty it affects my perception of everything. Now, I got these beauties not this particular set obviously.

This set’s got two or three lines in it that I didn’t used to have there. I’ve had glasses since I was in the second grade my glasses are unique in that I have to keep two pair because if I lose one or break one, I can’t go into Walmart and get it they have to order the lenses.

So I have to have two pair in case one gets broken and I know who all of you are but you’re all a blur and if I didn’t have experience if we had visitors and strangers and I know Bev’s family but if we had other visitors, I’d be who are those people? Those of you who have glasses understand what I’m talking about.

Those of you who had surgery to fix your eyes know what I’m talking about without these things the world looks different and this is what Jesus says or this is what Tim’s saying about the resurrection. You don’t have to go around, you know always talking about Christ but Jesus should be the prism you’re seeing the whole world through.

He says if they get too far down my nose if the relationship gets off if they get too far down my nose they’re too dirty it affects my perception of everything likewise a person with a passion for Christ isn’t necessarily always talking about Christ, but he is looking at everything through the prism of Christ and it changes the way you see the world.

So where are you? We must believe the facts. We must believe the facts of the resurrection the literal historic Jesus coming out of the grave and seen by witnesses but the question we always have to ask day by day what difference does that make to my Christian walk am I truly seeing Christ in all that I say and do?

Father, we thank you.