Because He Lives

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. The one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible. It is truly an honor to come to you today on this beautiful Resurrection Sunday as we come to celebrate our risen Savior.

This is such a joyous time. I have so much joy in my heart because of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because of what He did. He went to the cross. He died for my sins. He died for your sins. He died so that all can have eternal life. If we would just simply accept His free gift, the free gift, of salvation, He already paid the price for us. He paid the sin debt. And if you just accept Him, you too can have eternal life. And I'm just so glad with what our Lord did. And the great thing about it is not only did He die for our sins, but on the third day, the Bible says He got up from the grave and He is alive and well.

He is now at the right hand of the Father. And so we are here today to celebrate our risen Savior, to celebrate our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And as I think about this time of year, when I think about the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord, it reminds me of a song that I used to hear in church, a hymn back as a child growing up that I used to hear so often.

And the song was titled, Because He Lives. And now I'm not a singer. I don't have a singing voice. If I did, I would sing it. But because I don't, I know there are people out there that say, well, you should just sing anyway, whether you think you're a great singer or a good singer or not, because it all sounds good to the Lord. I believe that the Lord gifted us in different ways.

And some of us just do not have that gift. And so I'm going to, as the saying goes, stay in my lane and I'm not going to sing. But I do want to share the words with you from verse one of this song, Because He Lives. And it goes as follows. An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.

And I just love that song as I have been meditating on a message for Resurrection Sunday. That song has just played over and over in my mind because He bought my pardon. He bought your pardon because the Bible tells us that the wage of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. And a debt had to be paid.

A death had to be executed or carried out. And Jesus Christ stepped forward and He came to the earth. He stepped out of a perfect heaven. He came to this fallen world so that we can have eternal life. And an empty grave is there to prove that our Savior lives. He's no longer in the grave. He's no longer among the dead, but He is alive and well. And He is at the right hand of the Father. So I want to share today with you a message titled, Because He Lives.

Because He Lives. I'm going to be looking today at the main text in the book of Mark chapter 16 verses one through eight. Again, that's the book of Mark chapter 16 verses one through eight.

And I will be reading from the New King James Version. In the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us? But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away.

For it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe, sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him as he said to you. So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb for they trembled and were amazed.

And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. Heavenly Father, it is an honor, Lord, and a privilege that you have allowed us this opportunity to come together, Lord, to study your divine and holy word on this Resurrection Sunday as we observe your death, burial and resurrection. It is my prayer, Lord, that all things that are spoken that have become nothing but sound doctrine and may you be honored and glorified in all things in the name of Jesus.

Amen. There are really no words that can describe the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. When the Romans would crucify someone, they used it to inspire terror. And anybody who saw a crucifixion would say to the Romans, whatever you tell me to do, I'll do it.

Just don't crucify me. And the word excruciating comes from a Latin word, which means torment greatly. And crucifixion certainly enacted torment, great torment upon a person. And so when the executioners nailed hands to the cross, they would separate the metacarpals and place the nail not in the palm, but in the wrist.

They would try to hit the median nerve to send pain up the body and into the torso. And so our Lord Jesus would have been crucified with his hands at a 90 degree angle. But when his body failed while he was on the cross, it went down to a 65 degree angle. And so the weight of his body came down on his chest and left him gasping for breath. In order to breathe, he had to lift himself up. When he did, he had to push down on the nails that were in his feet. So he was between gasping for breath and with searing pain.

I want that to resonate in your heart for a moment. The suffering that our Lord went through on the cross. And when you keep in mind, in fact, you're into the equation that his suffering didn't begin just on the cross, but he had already been scourged. He had already been beaten. He had been mocked and tormented for hours, even prior to going to the cross. And the Bible even says that he was he was battered in the head of our Lord Jesus Christ was bruised to the point that his face was so brutalized.

You cannot tell whether it was the face of a man or the face of an animal. And so our Lord suffered greatly. He suffered for you and he suffered for me so that we could have eternal life. Beaten to the point that his face was unrecognizable, but yet he stayed there on the cross. He took the beating. He did it because of his great love.

He did it because of his great compassion for every one of us and all of us can have eternal life through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so when I think about that song, because he lives. It makes me think that I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow.

That is how the course of that song, because he lives, I can face tomorrow. As we look at our main text, the Marys went to anoint the body of Jesus. But they were alarmed when they got there because they saw an angel clothed in white, but they saw no Jesus. And so they were trembled and they were amazed because there was this large stone. And scholars and historians have estimated that this large stone would have weighed somewhere between one to two tons. And so it would have been humanly impossible for a single man to to move this stone.

And the Bible tells us in another account of the gospel that there was a great earthquake. So the combination of this angel along with this great earthquake, this stone was moved. And so they came because on the way they were discussing among themselves who is going to move the stone. How are we going to get there to anoint the body of our Lord?

Who's going to move the stone? And so when they get there, they see the stone not just moved out of the place, but the stone was actually sitting over to an area all by itself. An obvious indication that there was something supernatural going on.

It was not the power of man by which this happened, but it was a supernatural power. And so they were amazed and they were trembled. And then Matthew Chapter 28, verse eight says they left the tomb with great joy. So they saw this angel sitting there. He said, do not be alarmed. You look for Jesus, but he is not here. He says he is risen.

And then he tells them to go and tell the others about it. And so they left with great joy. You know, when when you know that there is something good happening or something good that has happened, you can face tomorrow. You know, I would think about when I was really into basketball and I still do enjoy basketball. I still watching it and still enjoy watching it and I enjoy playing it. But there was a time in my life when I did not put basketball into its proper place, into its proper priority. And the Lord made me realize through the through the Holy Spirit that I had made an idol out of a sport.

I never idolize an individual person, but I did idolize the sport. And I can think about times being a diehard North Carolina Tar Heels fan and there will be games in which the Tar Heels will lose to the rival, the Duke Blue Devils. And I didn't want to face tomorrow. I didn't want to go to school to face my classmates, the Duke fans, because they were going to ridicule me. They were going to pick on me. They were going to mock my team.

And so I would wake up and I would be feeling just all bad inside because I didn't want to face them because of what I knew I was going to have to deal with. And the Holy Spirit started working on me and letting me know that you're getting bent out of shape over some guys running up and down a court, bouncing an orange leather ball in shorts and tank tops and whichever one can put it through a hoop more than the other. That determines your your happiness and your joy. And it made me stop and realize, yes, Lord, I have made an idol out of sports because sports have no redeeming value in life. If you take away sports, life goes on just fine. And so I did not want to face tomorrow because of a Heels loss.

But again, that is something that is of little value is of little importance is simply entertainment. It does not compare to what our Lord Jesus Christ when he died and how the men and the women that were followers of him trying to face tomorrow in light of that. And some of us have lost jobs and following a job loss and you wake up or you go to be at the night of your job loss and you're thinking about the next day, what is going to be like having to to get up and face tomorrow and you don't want to face it or maybe it's the death of a loved one. You may have had someone that died in the past long time ago or maybe even recent. You may be going through it right now and you're dreading facing tomorrow because, you know, tomorrow is going to bring sadness.

You know, it's going to to to bring you negative feelings. You're going to be missing that person. You know, I recently lost my grandmother a few months ago and it was tough to face tomorrow. It was tough to face the next day because I missed her.

I loved her. But the thing about it was I could face tomorrow. I could face the next day a lot easier because I knew that she had put her faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And I knew that she was in heaven and I knew that she was there celebrating with our Lord.

And so therefore I could face tomorrow. And the reason I could face tomorrow is because Jesus lives. Because Jesus lives. He got up from the grave. He conquered sin.

He conquered death. And for all of us who put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we too need not fear death. We need not worry about tomorrow because we know that that loved one who has died, that loved one who has gone on, if they accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, one day they're going to get up from the grave again.

Just like the grave of our Lord Jesus Christ was empty, the day will come when their grave will be empty as well. And so because he lives, I can face tomorrow with confidence. I can face tomorrow with joy. I can face tomorrow with peace. I can face tomorrow with assurance because of our love, because of our Lord Jesus Christ and because of the love that he has for us and what he did for us. And then as the chorus of the song goes on to say, because he lives, all fear is gone.

2 Timothy 2, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7 tells us, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. We are in a period right now in which we are facing this virus, this coronavirus, and people have lost jobs. Many people, thousands have died. And what's so sad is that people are dying and they're not even able to have a public funeral due to the fact that they are asking us to social distance. We can't have large gatherings. So people are losing their loved ones and they're not even able to give them a formal farewell. They're not even able to gather as a as a as a family of loved ones to to give their farewell to a person.

And it's just so heartbreaking. And so but there are a lot of people today that this coronavirus are worried about their jobs, they're worried about their lives. But I want to assure you today that because Jesus lives, we need not fear. All fear is gone because he lives.

Because when you stop and think about it, if Jesus Christ conquered death. Trust me, the coronavirus is not too big for him. Your job loss is not too big for him. Your broken marriage is not too big for him. Your your your sickness is not too big for him.

Your wayward child is not too big for him. And certainly the death of your loved one that has died due to the coronavirus. And I don't make light of it.

I'm not trying to brush it under the rug or sweep it under the rug to say that it's no big deal. Because, yes, the death of a loved one is a big deal. The death of a loved one hurts. It's painful.

It's excruciating the emotional toil that you go through. But I want you to know that you need not fear because Jesus lives. That loved one will rise from the grave someday. Because when we fear, we're showing a lack of trust in God. When we have fear, we're really saying, God, I don't believe that you're going to come through on this situation for me. I don't know if I can trust you, God, to to bring this to pass, to make things right. I don't I just don't know, God, if you can do it. But Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came to this earth.

They showed that he has all power in his hands. We need not fear. It's just like a dad who who may be urging his his kid to jump in the pool for the first time, the first trip to a swimming pool. And you see a small child and he's telling them to jump in the child is fearful and they're nervous and they don't know.

And the dad is urging them saying, come on, I will catch you. Don't worry. Trust me.

It's the same way when it comes to our father. But he's telling us for something even greater than jumping in the swimming pool. He's saying, come and jump into my arms. He's saying, I will give you eternal life. You can trust me.

Just accept me. I will lead you to eternal life where you need not fear. No more sickness, no more pain, no more death. And because he lives, we need not fear death. We can trust in the power of our almighty Lord. What a great God it is that we serve. What a risen savior it is that we serve. And we can trust and know that no matter what comes in our life, we need not fear because he lives. I can face tomorrow because he lives.

All fear is gone. You are listening to Brian C. Thomas on God First. For more Brian's teachings, please visit Godfirst.org to browse our extensive library of material. There you will find devotionals, blogs, articles and audio messages available as MP3 downloads on various topics such as salvation, Bible prophecy, marriage and the significance of blessing Israel.

Just to name a few. You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter and visit our Web store. So please visit us at Godfirst.org. Now let's return to the conclusion of today's message. Because our Lord lives, I can face tomorrow because our Lord lives. All fear is gone. And because I know that he lives, I know he holds the future. And that is what I love about that song, because he lives, because he says, I know he holds the future. He is coming back again. Our Lord Jesus is coming back to receive us. And the thing about it is that he died. He was resurrected and he went back to the father and he's seated at the right hand. But when he left, he told the apostles, he said, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. He said, in my father's house, there are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. And so he's going away and he's been preparing this place for us in the father's house for approximately 2000 years now. And he's coming back again. The Bible says in Matthew, chapter 24, verse 30, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. I don't know about you, but I get so excited when I think about that, when I read that verse and I start picturing our Lord coming back, appearing in the heavens, appearing in the clouds and coming back with power and great glory. It reminds me of a time in which I can remember when I was in college and I would walk to and from class. And as I was walking back and forth, I would have moments when I would just start to look up in the air, could still see where I was going, walking, but I would just look up in the air and I would just start to imagine Jesus Christ coming back on the clouds, coming back in power and great glory. And it would just bring so excitement to my heart. And today I still think about years later, even after college, I'm still out in my yard or sometimes when I'm just driving down the road and I look up in the sky and I just start picturing Jesus Christ coming back and how great that day will be. And it will happen again.

He is coming back again. And I'm so much looking forward to it. We know that also by the Book of James, chapter five, verses seven through eight, it tells us, therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. The scripture is telling us to be patient.

He is coming again. It may seem like it's been a long time by man's standards. It has been a long time. But we must remember that the Bible says that unto God, a thousand years is as one day. And so he departed this earth and went back to heaven about two thousand years ago.

But to to our Lord, who you again, you have to understand he he exists, he lives outside of time and space. And so to him, it's only been two days, you know, just two days ago was when he was here. And so to us, though, it seems like, oh, man, it's been thousands of years. It's been a long time. It's just taken so long.

But he is coming back again. And I know that we're going through things in life. It seems as though our hardships and our heartache is never going to end. But when we look back on this life, when we are in eternity, when we are a trillion years into eternity, we'll look back on what we were going through in this life and we will think it was just the vapor.

It was just like a blink of time. It'll seem like nothing in comparison to our eternal life. But we must be patient.

We must wait on him. Whatever it is that you're going through, sickness, trials, tribulations. I know marriages are are just crumbling all over the place. I know people are having trouble with their children and people are having trouble with sickness, with financial struggles. But I want to encourage you just be patient and wait on the Lord.

He will deliver you if you keep your trust in your hands in him. And it reminds me of I watched a cartoon not too long ago. My kids were watching and I sort of looked over their shoulder.

And it was a cartoon in which the kids had had gotten these seeds from school and it was the seeds of a fruit tree. And so they were excited and they went out in the yard and they dug a hole and they planted the seeds and they stood there and waited. And after about a minute, one of them said, I don't see anything happening.

And the other one said, me neither. And so they waited a bit longer, maybe 10 minutes. And they said, I still don't see anything. And so then the cartoon fast forwarded to three hours later and the kids have fallen out on the ground. They had fallen asleep. And then one of them knows the other. And they woke up and looked and said, nothing is still happening.

And somebody else said, I think it's going to take a little bit longer. But then the scene fast forwards to a year later and there is this beautiful seedling coming out of the ground with leaves. And it was just so beautiful. And then it fast forwarded to a couple of years later.

And then this tree was bearing this beautiful fruit that the kids were able to partake in and enjoy. And so likewise, we have to be patient and wait on the Lord. He is going to return again because he holds the future. But we have to wait on him, wait on his timing. And when he comes back, he's going to read this world of seeing forever. But we must wait patiently for our Lord.

And I want to encourage you that it is well worth the wait because he is coming back again. And I get so excited when I think about our Lord and how he's coming back with power and great glory. And the Bible says that in that day, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And for those of us who have put our faith and trust in him, we're going to do it with great joy and we're going to do it with great excitement. And we're going to rule and reign with him and go on and live in his millennial kingdom and go on into eternity, living in the presence of our Lord forever.

But for those who rejected him, they are still going to bow. They're going to have to bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But then they're going to be cast into eternal damnation, into eternal darkness, separated from God forever, where the Bible says there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And the Bible says they will go into a place where the worm die is not. Don't be that person is going to be separated from our Lord. Give your life to Jesus Christ today so that you can live with him for all of eternity. It's simply just confessing your sins and say, Lord, Jesus, I'm a sinner. I confess my sins.

I repent of my sins. And I ask you, Lord Jesus, to come into my heart and live with me and give me eternal life. And you too can be in his kingdom for all of eternity.

And then the song Because He Lives. That course concludes with and life is worth the living just because he lives. It is worth living because our Lord lives. It is worth being with him and in his kingdom for all of eternity.

If you're out there and you feel like life is so grim and dark and is hopeless, if you're considering suicide, if you're considering leaving your family, whatever it may be, I want to tell you, life is worth living because Jesus Christ lives because he has all power in his hand, whatever it is that you're going through. He can take care of it. He can heal it. He can restore you. He can restore the situation if you just put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

So as I come to my close today. It took a perfect Passover, sacrificial lamb for our sins. Prior to the coming of Jesus Christ at his first coming, the Israelites had to sacrifice a lamb at Passover, but the lamb simply covered their sins.

But it did not atone for their sins. But when Jesus Christ came, the perfect one, the one who had no sin, the one who knew no sin, but yet was beaten and bruised for our transgressions, his sacrifice said, paid in full. Our God said, our God, the Father said, this is satisfactory. And so on the cross, Jesus took God. He took a holy God, the Father with one hand, and then he took the sinful man with the other hand. And by the blood of his cross reconciled God to man. He took us by the hand and presented us to God, the Father. And he said, Father, these are mine.

I purchased them with my blood. And God said, paid in full. Have you taken his hand today? If you haven't, I encourage you to do so, because there is eternal joy that can only be found through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

He is the only way to heaven to God, the Father. And as I look out today, I see the beautiful sunshine leading up to this week's sunrise service. I was watching the weather forecast a few days ago and they were saying that it's going to be a rainy day.

And I was concerned. I was disappointed because I wanted to have a sunrise service. And then as I saw the forecast a couple days later, they said, well, it looks like the rain may come a little later, but it's going to be cloudy. And so I thought, oh, that's disappointing. I won't see the sunrise. And then last night I saw the forecast and they said, it looks like the system has slowed down.

And so we're going to be hit later on today with heavy rain and wind. But this morning, as I look out right now, I see the sun shining bright and beautiful on this resurrection day. And it reminds me of nearly 2000 years ago when the sun came up, our Lord Jesus rose from the dead with all power in his hand. He died for my sins. He died for your sins so that we can have eternal life. And so today we commemorate our Lord. We glorify him.

We lift him up. We magnify his holy name. What a mighty God it is that we serve. We thank you, Lord Jesus.

We glorify you. We praise your holy name as you are the one and only true God. Lord Jesus, we thank you on this great occasion for your sacrifice. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming and dying for our sins.

There's no greater love that can be found anywhere than the love that you showed for us. That God, you saw that man needed a savior and the only savior that could satisfy the sin debt requirement is that you yourself come to the earth. And so, God, you came to the earth in the form of a man. You were fully man, but yet fully God. And you allowed your creation to beat you. You allowed your creation to mock you. You allowed your creation to persecute you.

You allowed your creation to kill you. All so that we, your creation, could be saved. And we are forever grateful for it. There is no way that we can ever thank you enough. There are no words that can truly express the gratitude that we have. We just thank you, Lord, for a thousand years from now, a trillion years from now, a hundred trillion years from now, we will still be glorifying you and praising you for what you have done for us. We thank you. We love you and we honor you on this day, for you are truly the one and only true God.

You truly have all power in your hands. And we just so much look forward to living in your presence for all of eternity. We thank you on this day. And remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We pray blessings over the great nation of Israel.

And to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.