The Death, Burial, & Resurrection - Bishop T.D. Jakes, Dr. Cynthia James, and Dr. Antipas Harris

[Music] are you ready for this we're gonna start with dr. Antipas Harry's talking about the death wonderful Thank You bishop and thank you for this opportunity to share tonight I tell you I love the word of the Lord and I believe that there is a word in season for each of us to it tonight I want to turn to the book of Philippians Philippians chapter 3 and verse number 10 a familiar passage of Scripture for many of us it reads in this way from the NRSV I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death first of all Paul is in what we believe the Roman jail and incarcerated suffering he writes a passage that is very aspirational I want to know him in the power of his resurrection because he recognizes that resurrection is not a human activity it is a divine activity it is the glory but he when he says that's what I want and then he backs into something that I think is profound he says and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him and his death and just for a few minutes I'm gonna talk about the death many of us have experienced death like situations and you know even being here on this stage with Bishop TD jakes and dr. Cynthia James I feel as if I'm in a glorified state and I often tell people that you may see the glory but you don't know the story and every every success that anyone would experience will go through trauma to get there I was talking to a successful physician one day who said that you may see the success as a physician but you don't know the nights that I struggled in med school and that and the tests that I fail I may have failed in the battle but I won the war I'm him I'm here to tell you tonight that no matter where you are in your life the aspiration is great but in order to get there we have to go through death like situations and Jesus meets us in the death like situation the text tells us that Paul says that I want to know him in the power of his resurrection but I understand that I have to be with him in the death the death in this text reminds us of the apex the culmination of the Incarnation Jesus came to earth God came among us to be like us to experience Humanity in its most debase way and it was in his death that he became the most like us in fact Carl Bart the great theologian of the 20th century says that the apex of Christian theology is the cross because in the cross we experienced the reality of humanity we recognize where when God said is he coming among humankind to experience what we experience is in the death that we meet him in the greatest experience of human suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus knew already had already predicted that he was gonna die and that he was gonna rise again but in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus knowing what the end is gonna be still had to deal with the human experience of suffering and while he was with his disciples they fell asleep because they were tired and Jesus could not sleep the text says in the Book of Luke chapter number 22 that he walked about a stone's throw and as he was in the garden he felt he fell down and mount the Garden of Gethsemane and mount all of it the Bible says that when he fell down Jesus prayed father let this cup pass from me and then he said nevertheless not my will but your will be done why did Jesus say that knowing that he had a future that was bright because Jesus in the moment felt the pain of alienation of human Ella nation he felt the egg of the death that was coming and the text says that the more anguish he felt the more he prayed you know that some of us who've been praying and praying and praying and feeling as if if I if I pray and it doesn't happen for me then prayer may not have worked but Jesus teaches us that sometime God deliver us from anguish and some time God deliver us through anguish and in that Garden of Gethsemane Jesus teaches us that he will deliver us through pain he would deliver us through agony and the Bible says that the more anguish that he felt the more he prayed you know in my own life I've had anguish and I felt alienation and I felt despised and rejected I felt they'd to see the stench of death come my way and it's in the most devastating moments that I felt the closest to God I'm trying to tell us today that in this season where there's death all around and covet 19 seemed to be the order of the day it's the enemy of all humanity it's the invisible enemy we don't know where it is and afraid to fall into the trap this is a time for us to get the closest to Jesus because he understands what it means to be in anguish he knows what it means to be rejected he knows the pain of he knows the pain of life and it's in the pain of life that we can associate with Jesus because is in this death type situation that it was a setup for the future and there's some of us right now that's going through pain in our lives and maybe it's a divorce and maybe it's maybe it's the loss of job and you feel like God is the furthest away I'm here to tell you tonight that in our text we see that if we're going to get to the resurrection we got to conform to his death in other words we got to meet him in the death type situation another theologian German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the call of God is the call to die because it's in the death that we meet him we meet Christ in death we meet him in the death type situations for those of us whether we're rich or poor we're we have a job but don't have a job whether we're sick of well everybody will go through pain in our lives and it's in the pain where Jesus is the closest to us so tonight I want us to take note that as we go into this this Passover season you know I was at Walmart one night and a man was pacing the floor and I thought to myself what is he doing we were preparing for this covet 19 Sheraton in place and the man finally made his way over to me and he asked me do you know about the Passover and immediately I knew that he was part of the black Hebrew Israelites and he was trying to see how much I knew about Passover and immediately I started to preaching to him about the Passover he said no that's okay that's okay you can go but it occurred to me that we may not understand the Passover as Christians and that Jesus's death on the cross was prefigured by the Jewish Passover in Christian tradition we celebrate Easter the resurrection but it came from a celebration in Jewish tradition that was a celebration of the sacrifice in Exodus chapter number 12 where there was the last plague that came through Egypt and the Bible tells us that it was the plague of death and in preparation of the death God told them on the tenth day of the first month which was the first month was called the month of AV to take a lamb without spot or blemish and I want you to set it aside and on the fourteenth day of the month of AV if I want you to sacrifice that lamb and take the blood of that lamb and put it on the Lenten post of the doorpost of your house he said because that night on Passover night he says I'm going to come through the land of Egypt and when I see the blood I will in Hebrew it says pisaq I will leap over that house and so we learned that Jesus on that cross on that cross of Calvary He fulfilled the Paschal Lamb because he became the blood that was under Litton post of our house and when he sees the blood he says we're Passover that's why we believe we believe that the cross is the apex of Christian theology because it's the fulfillment of the prefiguration of the blood that helped us to escape death and that's why we believe that Saints don't die we just sleep away because Jesus has already died and then there's the vicarious lamb that the vicarious lamb is the lamb that died so that we don't have to die in 2nd Corinthians chapter number 5 verse number 15 says he died for all that all who live don't live for ourselves but live for the one who died for us and rose again Jesus died so we don't have to die and then there was the atoning Lamb the atoning lamb was the Lamb that was slain at Yom Kippur in Hebrew tradition and it was the Lamb that John saw when he looked at his cousin Jesus and said behold the lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world because they're toting lamb is about taking away the sins that are in the world and then there is the last one I mentioned before I relinquish the microphone and that is the passable lamb the passable lamb divine possibility has to do with Jesus's connection with human suffering that is the confirmation to death that Paul talks about Jesus identifies with human suffering because in the garden and on the cross Jesus died can you imagine Mary looking at her son on the cross she didn't say oh look how the Lamb of God has come to take away the sins of the world Mary looks at the cross and she says that's my son that's my son she understood the human experience of the disconnect if 'ti between the son that she birthed in the stable and now he's on the cross all he's ever done was tried to do good but now he's suffering on the cross Jesus on the cross looks at his mom and feel the disconnection between his mom and his own Humanity on the cross and he tells John behold Your Mother because he recognized the suffering of the descent she ation between the mother and the son have you ever lost a loved one and you know the stress and the strain of losing a loved one have you ever felt like you've done and the more good you do the worse things get that's Jesus on the cross identifying with human suffering that no matter how good we are we will suffer because suffering is part of the human experience but Jesus identifies with that on the cross and on the cross he died he died he died in to the elements changed in the blood and they and the Sun refused to shine he died in - grace - truth fell over into the arms of grace and he died in such a way that even the divine fell into the arms of humanity so that humanity can fall into the arms of the divine Jesus died he suffered he died he passed he was the pastor lamb he was their toning lamb he was the Paschal Lamb and he was the passable lamb and no matter where we are in our lives Jesus connects with us because he understands Isaiah says am i closing he is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and here is the strange part we hid as it were our faces from him it reminds me of job how his friends turned their backs on him and his suffering no matter where you are Jesus understands and in this season it is a great opportunity to deepen our faith and connect ourselves with the suffering passable land because he understands my assignment is to talk to you about the burial and I'm gonna be in Luke 23 50 through 56 it's just now behold there was a man named Joseph a council member a good and just man he had not consented to their decision and deed he was from armament armed Athiya a city of the Jews who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus then he took it down wrapped it laid it in a tomb and was soon out of Iraq where no one had ever lain before that day was some preparation and the Sabbath drew near and the women who had come with him from Galilee followed after and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment the burial the reason I haven't said anything is that the burial is quiet the death speaks loudly they're screaming in agony and weeping and wailing and lightening and fleshy and ground trembling and veils ripping the death is so quiet you don't understand how quiet the barely is until you've buried a loved one come to a cemetery went to a tomb and notice the deathly silence muriel it is that silence that speaks to us in the process of death it stands in sharp contrast to what dr. anton be said for what dr. Anne Traverse said was full of fire and thunder and lightning and flashing and and and the commendation of the mother to the son the son to the mother and the voice speaking from heaven eli lhasa Moffat it none of that happens here when we come to the grave there is quiet there's other silence in fact it wouldn't have even happened had it not been for Joseph of Arimathea Joseph alarma Thea is a very interesting character because he is a disciple but he's kind of a disciple in hiding he's not prominent in scriptures he's not mentioned and many of the feasts or the ceremonies of the rituals he he follows Jesus from afar the closest comrade I can think of to Joseph Armour there was was Nicodemus they both said on the Sanhedrin court they both were on the Council of the Sanhedrin court they were like on the Executive Board the CEOs board they were men of influence and affluence and Joseph was a rich and wealthy man in order to be able to come right up to Pilate he had to be of nobility a Jew that could go and command the presence of Pilate was not easily done maybe that had something to do with why he was not often seen with Jesus he was almost like a a secret disciple when they voted to crucify him he did not vote to crucify him because his convictions in his heart would not allow him to compromise his convictions to hold on to his position he would not vote to crucify it and he has stayed largely out of the way not to compromise perhaps where he was or where he was in the story but when Jesus died he had to come out of hiding he goes to Pilate and says can I have what's left I know what's left can heal no one I know that what's left will not walk on water I know that what's left will not heal the woman with esure blood I know that's what's left will not touch blind bartimaeus I know that's what's left will not commander's hockey is come down out of the tree is just a rift to open gashed bleeding bloody wounded bruised body that speaks no more I know he's cold now he's stiff now but I still wanted and the Bible says that he wrapped him up in linen and he carried the body of Jesus to place it in a tomb that something alone just think that he had he had really bought for himself but there's something about loving Jesus when you are advantage you will sacrifice you will give that that you had for yourself you you will you will break into your own staff when you really love Jesus if push comes to a shove and you got to stand up and be counted even though Jesus was silent Joseph of Arimathea his faith was loud because he gave him the tool some said he borrowed the tool but that's in retrospect in reality he had to give it to the head no expectations of ever being paid back forward and there was unclear as to whether Jesus would ever rise again because even his disciples struggled with that idea of the Resurrection me understood it better later than they did in real time speed he was just giving his tomb and expensive to man exotic tomb a tomb that was hewn out of rock that meant that several laborers had labored to dig a place in the rock and we see Jesus in the cleft of the rock like we saw Moses in the cleft of the rock in the Old Testament when he hid in the cleft of the rock to see the glory of Jesus he's back in the rock again think about that you got a rock being buried in a rock you took a rock crisis called the rock you took a rock and put him in a rock and covered him up by rock a rock in a rock surrounded by rock covered by rock it's just a rock and there he is buried and they have hidden my lord sometimes God hides I want to talk to you about the God that hides because sometimes God hides with it's easy to see him in the service in the sanctuary with the worshipers of the dancers and the singers of the praise and the banners and the flags and the time meaning in their hands and copy that so wonderful you could just you could just almost see him in the room but in the storm sometimes God hides God hides in such a way that we cannot see him he had sinned such a way that we must seek Him he had sinned such a way that we must search and knock and ask because we are uncertain as to where they have laid him down God hides he reminds me of how in the book of Genesis when the earth was first made the earth was hidden beneath the water it was buried it was buried sometimes grace is buried sometimes truth is buried sometimes answers are buried sometimes solutions are very but just because they're buried and just because of quiet don't you think that they're not there just because they are not loud or boisterous does not mean that they have lost their power as long as Jesus was revealed 5,000 people came to hear him speak but now God has gone into hiding like a king in seclusion he is secluded in Iraq he is buried he is buried it is the first time that the burial ground has seen the king the king has come to the burial ground so that whenever we invoke his name it wouldn't just have power above the earth but it would have power in the earth and on the earth that had the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven of things in earth and things under the earth the Lord went under so that we could come over he he was buried he was buried he was buried and no one could find him he was buried and all the preaching had stopped he was buried and there were no miracles he was buried and there were no great services he was buried and the disciples were running for their lives he was buried and all of the wonderful testimonies ended he was buried and there's no more talk about the woman with the issue of blood of the alabaster box because the burial is quiet I wonder how your faith operates when God had anybody could have great faith when he's visible when he's present when he's paramount when he's there and we can feel him and we got chill bumps and we got glory and we got everything going our way of the job is going good and the marriage is going good the kids are going good but when everything stops and all the streets on earth are empty no more traveling in the streets all the merchants have closed their business and he has gotten quiet it is my job to you to talk about the quietness of a God who is hidden a king in exile laid in a tomb buried in a grave how you like me now I know you like me when I was turning water into wine I I know you like me when I was healing the lepers I know you like me when I stopped the woman with the issue of blood I know you like me when I called Nazareth out the grave but do you love me in silence can you serve me when I'm saying nothing didn't serve me when my blood is congeal and my flesh has gotten cold in my eyes are closed can you serve me when I'm wrapped up in a linen shroud like a mummy and laid inside of a tomb and there is no earthquake and no rending of noddle garments and no tearing of no veils how do you like me now Joseph carries the cold rigor mortis ridden body of Christ into the tomb and roll is told in front of him and there were honour silence only having Nicodemus ended funny the people who were closest were not there the people who were furthers and came close that's why you are not judge people because there comes a time that it will become the tail and the tail will become the head you can't judge who will really come through when the rubber meets the road you would have thought it would have been Peter James and John they put him it was those who said the lease that ultimately did the most I want to speak to those undercover Christians out there that are listening at me right now it's time for you to come out of hiding it's time for you to take your rightful place it's time for you to come out of the shadows without fear with our favor I want to speak to all of you that have influence with the pallets and you can get in the room with the presidents and you can go to the government and the council and get things done I want you to know that God gave you your job for such a time as this he gave you your wealth he gave you the tool for such a time as this not for you to sit back and brag about how many yachts you have and lay out on the yard smoked cigars and drink only I God gave you what he gave you so that it could be of use to the kingdom your tool is not your own it belongs to the master and until you see that you will never be the man or the woman that God created you to be until you understand that God puts you in a position Joseph for such a time assists him and Nicodemus working together Peter John James Mark Luke Bartholomew nowhere to be seen Zacchaeus isn't there where is the woman with the issue of blood where is the Samaritan woman who met him at the whale where is the Mary that was caught in an adulterous behavior where is the woman that was almost stoned where are they now they're all gone some people can only say Jesus were there surrounded by an entourage and a huge rat to do but when you come to the tomb there are no crowns at the tool there are no choir singing there are no tambourines beating there are no Saints readjusting there's just the call all stiff body of Jesus and the question in the mind of his church suppose he was an impostor we thought he was going to be the king we thought he was going to rule we thought he was going to ring we thought he was going to fix everything and now he is dead he is dead can your faith live when it looks like everything God said was dead this is a moment that I get to preach to you about this is a moment to tell you about God has a proclivity of hiding life in death that all of nature has hinted and what would happen in burial that every seed that ever fell into the ground was warning us about Jesus coming and that one day he would fall into the ground and die every plant and every shrub and every bush and every maple tree all of it is a testimony of how God has life and death every pregnant woman is a testimony that God has life in a womb a womb and a tomb are correlated you said was a tumor I said was a womb because both of them were made two whole life for a while and for a while he was held and for a while there were no sermons and for a while there was no singing and for a while there was no rejoicing and for a while the aced in Jerusalem felt like the streets of Dallas feel right now just a little bit on just a little bit I'm comfortable to drive down our streets right now is a little bit weird because the marketplace is empty and there's no more traveling in the streets all the work on earth is suspended and it feels just a little bit funny because the part of the text that I have is quiet have you seen my beloved reaching up out of the Song of Solomon I see a desperate woman looking for her beloved say have you've seen him he's have you seen him Watchmen have you seen him one of the night have you seen him whom my soul loveth all of them a warning I said God hi oh I would have no job if God did not hide if he always flaunted himself you would have no need of a preacher you would have no need of a teacher you need somebody to preach and teach because every now and did in your marriage God hides in your family God's hides and your finances God hides on your job God hides and your circumstances God hides and you wonder have you seen my beloved there were no gospel messages to be preached he died like a thief from the cross he died convicted criminal on the cross he bled out and died on the cross and was buried in a grave he couldn't even pay for now all revival stopped no more conventions no more conferences no more gospel choirs no more singer thoughts no more praise of thoughts it was quiet and they waited and they waited and they hid and they waited I want to speak to a waiting congregation who was waiting on a guard who was hiding I want to tell you that he may not come when you want him but he's right on time I want to tell you that he did not promise to give you all kinds of signs while you're in a waiting position I want to tell you that there comes a time in your life that God hides on purpose and makes you seek his face I want to tell you about a God the plays hide and go seek and he hides from you and seek the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he's yet near let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts I want to tell you about god that hides not a God that reveals out of God that shows himself not a God of the apocalypse not a god that undraped himself not a God that exposes himself hi I want to tell you about a God that hides himself in bloody white linen sheets wrapped up in a to a rock on a rock sealed behind a rock they came to Pilate you know and told him we want to have the rock seal to make sure that he does not escape we want to seal it up to make sure that no rumors escape or nobody steals his body and they sealed him up in the tool not understanding that man cannot make a seal that God cannot pray as I close I want to talk to somebody who feels like you shut up in a situation and you can't get out of it I want to talk to somebody who feels like you shut up in a marriage and you can't get out of it I want to talk to somebody who feels like you shut up in poverty and you can't get out of it I want to talk to somebody who feels like you're shut up with a dysfunctional child that you came out of here and God it's solid and you wonder if you ever escaped the bondage of what you're going to right now there is a God that is able to do more in his silence and we do in our screaming and let the demon seal the tool and let hell shut the door and let the boss fire and let the neatest lay you off and they think they got you shut up you only shut up because it's a Sabbath and the Sabbath he was shut up he was shut up all night long my brothers and sisters that is not how the story ended and what you're going through right now is not how your story is going to end away with every demon who ever told you that this is it that it's over you know you bury people because you can't heal them and when people can't fix you they have a tendency to get rid of me and somebody has roll you into a tomb because they don't know how to deal with you but we have a God that knows how to deal with what man doesn't know how to deal with it I want to speak to everybody who's shut up in anything anywhere anytime anyway shut up in a habbit shut up in and abuse setup with alcoholism setup on cocaine shut up in adultery set up in wickedness set up in the flesh set up with ease set up with the disease set up in poverty set up with mental illness shut up in disgrace you might be set up now but that is not how the story so we turned to the resurrection our text is taken from Luke 24:13 through 35 just some excerpts to remind us now there came the same day verse 13 of 24 the same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem they were talking with each other about everything that had happened and as they talked and discussed these things with each other Jesus himself came up and walked along with them but they were kept from recognizing them he asked them what are you discussing together as you walk along they stood still their faces downcast one of them named Cleopas asked him are you only a visitor in Jerusalem and do not know that things that have happened there in these days what things about Jesus of now he was a prophet powerful and word indeed before God and all the people the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified Him but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel yeah and what is more it is the third day since all this took place I'm feeling that silence as though it's tangible in the room I'm feeling the weight of that death and that burial yes and the silence you have to be careful how it is that you break of silence a silence can't just be broken with any words or any thoughts yes some silence are sacred some silences are a sign of confusion and loss and so the scene that is going on is exactly as you've painted it they've totally bewildered a sense of alienation and rejection Peter has already ran and come back for the report but he's gone home the women have looked and seen and they went and told their colleagues the apostles but they thought they just were foolish and had idle talk and this narrator and the Gospel of Luke says that women had a vision there was no television it was that there were angels that they saw but when the things that we want to witness to make no sense they're totally out of sort we have no paradigm we have no template for them and that's what was going on I can imagine that the air was charged with silence yeah that was a time when one would stumble for words and vocabulary made no difference better if one sorted through their whole repertoire of emotions there was no feeling that was adequate whether it was a moan or groan or sigh everything felt short of saying what is going on and the scripture tells us my feet don't meet the floor like you own that these two disciples and they were not part of the eleven but these were part of the extended family these two disciples having witnessed and heard what had happened in Jerusalem were totally bewildered and somehow they thought that talking to each other the actual translation says pitching words back and forth words that tried to fill the empty air but we're inadequate they were walking seven miles or so away from Jerusalem I imagine that they wanted things to return to normal they knew how things were we don't Bible doesn't tell us where they were going home to Emmaus or why they were going there but they were going back I assume does something they knew if not they just want to get away from what they experienced then we can't get airplanes right now we can't get trains we can't even cross borders of cities we can't find that place where we are housed and where we feel the hospitality and where our spirit man can relax and they were totally astounded by what had happened and as the scene is said that there's been so much confusion so many theories so many hypotheses so much new language they are walking along the road together and they're going this seven mile journey and from the scene there's a stranger that joins them and one translation says that they say to him are you a stranger in Jerusalem that you haven't heard what happened another one says are you a visitor another translation says are you a sojourner that makes this way and actually this was Jesus incognito who had come out of hiding but still was not recognized because he had been seen before in his bodily form he was not seen when he was God in the grave but now he was hidden but not that he wasn't visible he was visible but he was still hidden this was Jesus incognito when he's there and we think he's not there when he hears and we confess and we think that he does not hear yeah and he catches I imagine as I visualized that he paces with him and he walks along this journey with them walking away from the very centre of where they need to be turning their back on where things that happened and trying to find a comfortable place but the thing about Jesus is that he meets us God meets us where we are even when we're not on the right path he meets us even when we're not in the right place in the right environment he meets us even when our words are kind of idle and empty and don't make sense he still falls in gate with us talking about a god that condescends and yet he's a transcendent God this is God who's fresh out of the grave it takes time to go on an off path a beaten path that's off the main road defined just to not in the main apostles but two disciples whose name we don't even know but one is named Cleopas and all we know is that they're not even part of the central group these are people on the fringe people who are outsiders people who are not known who have no resume who have no profile but thought early on leaves the dark grave and comes to walk with - and they think he's a stranger yeah and he knew exactly where they were yeah this thing about silence and that the themes are so rich as we go from the death the burial to the resurrection they're walking and yes it's silence not knowing who the stranger is the stranger who asked them what are you discussing and so they're just say well the things the things that have happened and sometimes we try and muddle and mutter trying to describe what has happened in Jesus oh well what things and I began to think about things amazing things that have happened things that the disciples had heard and seeing things that Mary had pondered in her heart they're always going to be some things things will always be there and they're talking about them and Jesus see how they did not remember this time leading up to Easter and Lent is a time of remembrance it's a time of returning it's a time of refreshing and reviving our memory and he said how long and I'm paraphrasing it but he said to them you're so slow of heart not to remember you you've seen something that you cannot explain but you've forgotten that I'm the same God that multiplied the loaves I'm the same God that healed two blind eyes on the same God that first fig cursed big trees I'm the same God that handled with her hands and stopped issues of blood I'm the same God that stopped quailed the storm and and caused the waves to stop being boisterous and allowed Peter to walk on water I'm the same God that met a woman who was going to bury her son and stopped a few in possession and raised him I'm the same God that told Jay Harrison that I'll go to your house I'm the same God I haven't changed the same day the same God the same scene that they had seen and the same stranger this whole thing about hidden and vision and not seeing this is a text to Bishop I think that's about seeing and vision because they didn't he was there but they didn't see him and somehow there's such unity and harmony in the scripture until when I read I hear Genesis and Genesis part of the dilemma for Adam and Eve is that they had a vision problem - their eyes were open and they were open to the deceived and the despair and the disappointment as they were exiled or expelled or evict it from the garden and turned to reside and they had to turn to the deaths and make their living out of the dust they had a vision problem because now they had violated that which was prohibited and now their vision their eyes were open but open to the wrong things it's so easy to see the things that we should not see and to miss the things that we should see they had open eyes and they were consigned to the dust but it was that same dust that same dirt that Jesus was buried in it was that same dust that he was bringing his plan and there's such a cohesion between the scripture and such an harmony and as I talked and think about these men on the road to Emmaus I can't help forget that in the beginning when God spoke to darkness and rolled back to darkness of death in the great he brought a creative light and when he spoke to the ground and caused it to roll back and let a generation coming and plants and green proceeded and that was the third day and in multiples of three in six days later still a third day he populated the earth this is the God who had a plan that was not disturbed that was not interrupted it didn't just happen in Luke or in the evangelists writings but all the way back to Genesis he set a model and a mantra for three days and four things changing for darkness rolling back four grounds rolling back and so all through the Old Testament both the law and the prophets we see for three days we see a none Sinai we see Israel committing their own original sin and yet there was an intercessor there was a resurrection there was Moses we saw when Mesopotamia came but he there was a resurrection there was life from renewal we saw the attempt to through Baroness and to threat to end the matriarchal line so that children and sons would not come forth but yet there was a resurrection resurrection doesn't end on a Sunday or the day after Sabbath resurrection is not a limited season but resurrection is something that goes on and on and on and so even when Abraham and Sarah were called to produce a child Isaac was the kind of resurrection resurrection is always about entertaining strangers and visitors and unwelcomed or unexpected sojourners gideon entertained an angel moses didn't understand how the burning bush angels and unusual appearances are always there and so when it looks strange and feels strange that's a wonderful environment for god to show up and work but we can't identify you more described him and he's incognito we still have to know he's there from the scene to the stranger and this stranger begin to teach this stranger had a sermon this stranger was the master exegete this stranger had a lesson this stranger made students and he began to teach them and he said don't you remember from the law through the prophets Moses his law and the Transfiguration the prophet and the Transfiguration law and prophets both standing there with Jesus no coincidence so it's all the plan of God unfolding no surprises all of this planned out it's fully expected by heavens plan and so it is he teaches them beginning at the beginning saying this is not something sudden this is not really unexpected this is not something that just happened this is not coincidental but this has been laid as part of the plan of God and he taught from the law which would be Moses through the prophets so even when there was Elijah and Elijah and when there was John and Jesus we see the pairing when we see the relationships and the walking together and the fellowship and he walked with them well ah the word walks with us you said a rock and a rock but this was the word xog ting the word this the master revealing the master there's no disclosure like what God can do to himself and for himself and for us he taught about himself the word unzipped the word another kind of Transfiguration until they being a part of what would be the body of Christ begin to see he disclosed with the radiance and a brilliance and a glory on a dark road as a stranger and a sojourner and a visitor he began to teach and to sermonize me and he worked with them like he works with us he works with us in drug addiction he works with us at graveside he works with us at hard times he unzips and unlocks and opens and dispels that which is dark he rolls back darkness and he still gives us creativity in the midst of a virus he still gives us innovative ways to have family when things are separated he still allows us to come together and worship he absolutely brings resurrection which is manifestation resurrection its manifestation of my faith do I really have it in these days resurrection is manifestation of healing resurrection is manifestation of Hope it's that same light its manifestation of the plan of God Jesus taught them until their eyes were open and he opened it with the word with the word with the scriptures their eyes were open and he walked with them because Jesus was always going somewhere he was going from the beginning before the beginning he was going it was always moving and traveling and on a journey and whenever way we're going he is willing to be right there going with us he made their destination a part of his destination and when he got to the place where they would went home these unhoused passions these unsheltered emotions these indescribable feelings and affections when they got to the place that we assumed was home since they went in there he made as if he would go figure out why he would tease them like yes come on yeah I'm not really going because because he didn't want to just be presumptuous maybe he didn't have that kind of arrogance maybe what didn't want to be intrusive there's something about the Lord that loves for us to invite him there's something about the Lord that he's so gentle ah such a husband man until he wants us to want him he encourages us to desire him he says behold I stand at the door and knock and if you open I'll come into you I'll sup with you and he made as though he would keep going and they said didn't our hearts burn with goodness they didn't want him to leave we have a hunger for a move of God if we didn't have one before this season we have one now that it's been fans into flame I need to see God I need to hear from him I need him to quiet my passions I need him to settle every doubt I need him to gain resolution to my questions in my issues he's the vaccine that I'm looking for he's the antidote that I can stand on I've gotten past being able to trust Grandma and Grandpa but now I need to see him for myself I need my eyes open I need my ears over I need my heart to burn and he said they invited him to come on in their house and what happens is here's the reversal here's the flip here's the turnaround that we look for the guests became the host yeah the guest became the master of the house so now they're unhoused souls and I'm thinking about this as I talk about it in this whole thing this whole three day thing because this was the third day that they were walking down the road to emmaus this reminds me of Jesus who said that if they destroyed the temple are we building in three days he was letting them know that it wasn't them it was 56 year building of Herod's temple but if they destroyed his body if they come against the body of Christ I'll rebuild it and here this was the third day they were walking away and here on this third day they invite him to come in and the guess becomes the host we have two hosts the Lord he loves the hospitality of grace grace is hospitable it's inclined it moves fear and doubt away and it brings a calmness it brings a resoluteness it brings a confidence in God it dismisses the stench of death where Lazarus was in the grave for days and stunk is aware there's a stench by now he's thinking but then Jesus was only three days so he knew no co Rupp said he knew no sin he was not broken down he was fully God and in our attempt to make sure we understand that the Incarnate Word was fully God we forget that he was fully man and his resurrection was bobbling in other words he didn't just rise as a spirit or concept or construct or a theology but he rose as a human man which means he rose with my issues he rose with my burdens he rose with my cares he rose with my tears he wrote with my heartaches my disappointments our household disagreements the marriages that struggle the children that don't obey heroes still Bobby Lee in bodily form heroes you know they could have heard about Jesus I love this but what he did is he showed up because the real way to know Jesus so he's not in connect neato or just a fable or something we heard about is in experience when you experience him when you walk with him and when he talks with you when he comes into your house not on the periphery not on the outside not just in the church but now he wants to be in your household he wants your household to be a sacred place he wants your table to be a table of Communion and fellowship and so now we have no excuse because he's right there with us and what does he do he takes charge he's no longer the visitor no longer the stranger no longer the Sojourner he takes the bread yeah and he breaks the bread and in the breaking of the bread yes they knew him yes in the breaking whether it's the layoff whether it's the hospitalization yeah what is the fever we can't explain where this they attack against the lungs whether it's the funeral you can't attend on the marriage you have to postpone in the breaking of the bread he's no longer in Canadian we mean incognito we know it's God yeah it's only God that's keeping us it's only God that's whispering to us it's only god that's bottling my tears yeah it's only God that's holding my hand it's only him that's keeping me in my right mind it's only God who's feeding my soul who's giving me fuel for the future it's only God who's showing up and showing out in the breaking the bread they knew him this was the one that they were talking about and telling him about himself and he had to explain himself to them they knew him I bet they felt cornered we got him in our house he's here with us alone we are have a monopoly on how to sit with God we know how to entertain him we have the rituals we have a style we have the language we have the denomination we have all that it takes we have the right songs we have the right moves the right dance but he remains transcendent he remains above and beyond this Jesus when they saw him he was elusive he's evading he does that not disappearing as it were he's there but he's not there as they say he's absent in his presence and his present in his absence because Hosea said in 6 and 2 and I'm paraphrasing from Revised Standard Version and whether he was speaking about the nation of Israel or whether he was speaking about the Messiah they're so intricately related he said and he's in three days he shall revive us and he shall restore us and we will live in his presence so resurrection is not just the third day event but it's an ongoing journey it's a continuing it's a staying with the master who stays with us it's learning to live in the presence of the Lord resurrection is not just stuck in the Bible and in the leaves of the book but resident rection is the gift that is given to us resurrection is about remembering that God gave his son he gave his life and he gave us a reason to have hope perhaps my brothers and sisters said like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus you've had a chance to recognize Jesus before in your life and you've missed it I couldn't help but wonder as I listened to dr. James so eloquently exegete the text before us why didn't he why didn't they recognize the scars on his brow why did they not see the nail prints in his hand later we would find that the nail prints were still there because Thomas touched him and believed why did they not see the the hole in his side they walked with Jesus but they kept missing it and some of you he's he's been with you all the time and you keep missing him and then I wondered to myself why didn't they recognize his voice for no man ever spoke like Jesus nobody ever spoke like these the winds recognize his voice of waves recognize his voice but the two disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognize his voice and then I wonder why didn't they recognize his preaching because who else would Jesus in a seven mile stretch could open up all the revelation of the Old Testament and shared with you while he's walking and never lose his breath they should have recognized him but they they missed him how many times has God revealed himself to you and you missed it and finally what it teaches us is that when he came into their life in a personal experience that they knew him better in experience than they did exposure and I'm wondering tonight have you had a real experience with God or have you had a lifetime of exposure have you had a real experience where you sat down at the with him and you ate out of his hand have you had a real experience with God they gripped you in such a way that it changed your perception of how you saw him in Sunday school and as a child and through your mother and there your grandmother but now in the turbulence of Cova at 19 and life and circumstances as a situation now you see him in a way that you never bet you never saw him before I want to make an appeal to you to every one of you who's drifted away and thought it was out of style and old fashioned and you've gone with the trends of the times you're a generation of the nuns your spiritual you're not Christian you're just this nebulous in the script thing I'm wondering do you see something now that you didn't see before that you don't need to pray to the universe you don't need a nebulous in the script indefinable God you mean in God the fits to the continuity that's guided you all of your life I'd like to recommend I'd like to recommend that God to you and he still loves you and he's not angry because you didn't see him and how he protected you even when you were drunken even when you were in sin it even when you were in the motel even when you were in the club and he's not angry because you didn't recognize him even though he protected you in the car wreck that brought you through the storm and brought you out of the hospital he's not angry because you didn't recognize all the good things he did for your child he said he's just waiting for you to have an experience with him and what we offer to you today is an experience with a living vibrant functional God who is able to touch your life and even if you are a believer and even if you are Christian and even if you had some level of intimacy with him I want you to go beyond a church experience a superficial experience a crowd an emotional experience to a personal come in my house Jesus experience and let me eat out of your hand I want you to come into a relationship with him that is so personal that it escapes the sanctity of these walls and moves into the parameters of where you live and where you eat I want to feel the warmth of his body heat on your chair and his elbows on your table and his hands breaking bread and you eating out of his hands that's how well he longs to know you and you can have that right now and I pray for you today father just just just just to sit with you our staff the country it's stuck up in the house and we got no company we got nowhere to go we got nothing to do it we can't go anywhere we can't go for a ride we can't go for a driving we can't go to the movies that we can't go to the mall and we can't go to the plane and now we're left sitting at the table would you come and sit with me would you open up your word and break your bread and feed me and show me what I should have seen seven miles ago would you show me who he really are I want to have a personal real vibrant relationship with you I realize I've been too busy and too nonchalant with you that you've been there all the time but it was me that was distracted and I realized that I've been arrogant because I thought I was smart and I was going to tell you what was going on when you needed to tell me and thank you for shutting my mouth I talked too much and I think I'm too smart and I don't know half as much as I thought I know and I needed to shut up and hear you and there I was trying to teach the teacher and Lord I'm sorry come into my heart I humbled myself I want to know you if you prayed that prayer once you hit me up on the Instagram Twitter I want you to hit me up any way he can Facebook I want to hear from you I want to make sure that we solidify this experience and then before we even celebrate Easter that that you've had a resurrection that transcends days and has nothing to do with dates on the calendar it doesn't matter what day it is you can have a resurrection in the middle of the week you don't have to wait to Sunday you can have an Easter experience right now and be resurrected in your heart I know Jesus is your life that's my prayer for you today I pray it in Jesus name and we know that it hears the lines in small shops and bakeries at barbershops that ten thousand dollars can be the difference between staying open and closing it's being prolonged they even get to an apex because we can't get everybody on the same page or how to even deal with prevention piece we all love our barbers but I haven't shaved side of my head the other day on my own that take so much of our face is built around fellowship with so much of our ethnicity is built around a sense of community we've seen a couple of things happen with commit we've seen that it's disproportionately affecting communities of color in terms of Public Health so between between that and the stimulus check that you will receive eventually hopefully people will be able to get through this tough time right now I don't know anybody that doesn't need this kind of release right now and everybody should be taking notes others you

Channel: T.D. Jakes

Views: 209,140

Rating: 4.8566637 out of 5

Keywords: td jakes, faith, potters house, bishop jakes, The Potter's House of Dallas, TPH Dallas, td jakes sermons, bishop td jakes, inspiration, td jakes motivation, motivation, sermons, td jakes ministries, motivational speaker, motivational speech, gospel, motivational, td jakes sunday, td jakes 2020, td jakes sermons 2020, death burial and ressurection, easter sunday, easter sunday td jakes

Id: 9aoRkLKqJuY

Length: 61min 41sec (3701 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 08 2020