Transcription
I'm so thankful to be here with you. I am so grateful for the powerful way that God moved in this auditorium last night. Wow, incredible ministry of the word of God, an incredible response by the people of God, and most of all, a powerful move of God's Spirit.
And as Brother Cultipiano was speaking, it just inspired me so much because this is our year of jubilee at home. And the scripture is very clear in the instructions for jubilee when the scripture says, "Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month in the day of atonement. Make the trumpet sound throughout all the land."
There were two trumpets in ancient Israel. One was the silver trumpets. They called people to war. They were played at the coronation of kings and all of that. But there was another ancient trumpet that you've heard of. The word in the Hebrew is shofar. And they still use the shofar in Israel. It is the ram's horn. The ram's horn was not typically used, uh, to call to war. It was used to call to celebration.
It's very interesting to me that in Joshua chapter six, when they were marching around the walls of Jericho at the seventh time on the seventh day, they did not blow the silver trumpets because that would have called them to battle and it would have been them fighting for the city of Jericho. On the seventh time on the seventh day, guess what the priests blew? They blew the ram's horn. That didn't mean they were calling the people to battle. That meant they were calling the people to worship.
It wasn't Israel's military skill that tore down the walls of Jericho. Guys, are you ready? Up top, I don't have a whole lot of voice left this morning, so I brought a secret weapon up in the sound room. I'll tell you what it was. On the seventh time, they said, "Don't blow the silver trumpets to call everybody to war. Blow the ram's horn, call everybody to worship God." Because when you worship God, the walls will fall down. When the people of God in the 21st century worship God, when the people of God in the 21st century are not ashamed, when the people of God in the 21st century lift up the name of Jesus with abandon, walls start to fall. I'm not talking about brick and mortar. I'm not talking about cement or wood. I'm talking about walls of depression and bondage and oppression. Oh, lift up your voice. Help me a little bit. Magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. Hallelujah! Come on, children of God! Come on, children of God! Hallelujah! Where are the people on a Friday morning who can praise God? Yes! Yes! If Israel can do it in the Old Testament, surely those of us who are filled with the Holy Ghost can praise God until the walls come down. Hallelujah! That's good, guys. Hallelujah! Amen!
Isn't it incredible to be with the people of God, in the presence of God, at a convocation like this, called to exalt the name of Jesus? And if you will pardon me, I have a thousand complimentary remarks I could say, uh, and I could take the whole time just expressing my thanks. But I want to jump right into the word of God this morning. And I'll let you be seated, and we will get to a text in the more in this in a moment. And I just need you this morning to, uh, help, uh, Pastor Raymond preach. And man, I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost right now. I even feel a touch of God on my voice. We'll see how long that holds out. Guys, you stand by with that trumpet because if my voice goes down, we'll pull the trumpet up, and the people of God can shout. How's that? Good deal. Awesome. I don't think it's going to. I'm just way too stubborn for that.
There are four Gospels. Anybody noticed that before? They are written for four separate purposes. Matthew is written to the Jews. He proves that Jesus is their Messiah. Matthew is always saying to the Jews, "Jesus did this, He said this, He went here, He did this, that it might be fulfilled." He's proving to the Jews that Jesus is indeed the Messiah of Israel. Mark is written to the Romans. This is a short Gospel. He's always saying, "Jesus straightway did this, and straightway did that. It's straight we went here." Because Mark's Gospel is written to the Romans to prove to them that Jesus is the suffering servant. "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many." Luke writes to the Greeks. Luke's is the longest Gospel. Luke writes about Jesus, the perfect Man. He was sinless. He was perfect. There was no man like Him. They all wrote somewhere in the '60s, '80, '62 to '68, somewhere in the first century, in the '60s.
But John outlives all of his contemporary brethren for some reason in the plan of God. And John survives 30 years after Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John lives into the '90s of the first century A.D. And John has now seen 60 years of Pentecost. John has seen 60 years when the church has risen to incredible heights and they have been called these that have turned the world upside down. John has watched the church as they have done incredible exploits in the name of Jesus. But John has also seen false doctrines arise and challenges to scripture and challenges to apostolic ministry. And John has seen his brothers, his beloved fellow apostles, put to death brutally and violently under the hand of Rome.
And so when John picks up his pen to write his Gospel, some 60 years after the birthday of the New Testament church on the day of Pentecost, his Gospel is written to the church. And so it starts differently. This is the last Gospel. This is, in fact, our Gospel. Particularly, they all belong to us, but none more so than John. When he writes, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Verse 1 and verse 14 tell us that when Jesus came, that was not just another prophet. That was not just another rabbi. That was not just another miracle worker. That was not just another leader of a group. That was God manifested in the flesh. God loved us so much that He wrapped Himself in flesh and came to earth. And from His opening sentence, John is on a mission to prove that Jesus Christ is exactly who He said He was: the true and only ever-living, never-dying God in a body of flesh.
And that is why 90, 90% of John's Gospel is unique. Did you know this? 90% of the Gospel of John is not found anywhere else in the New Testament. There are no parables in John. And John is very selective even about the miracles he records. Some are unique to him. We would never know about these miracles except for John, such as the raising of Lazarus from the dead. It's only recorded in John. And the miracles that he does record are twinned with Jesus' teaching in John. Jesus will heal a blind man, and Jesus will teach, "I am the life of the world." In John, Jesus will multiply the bread to feed the multitude, and He will say, "I am the bread of life that came down from heaven." John is on a mission to tell us, to tell the church, who Jesus is. You know why? Because people attack who Jesus is all the time. So the Gospel of John gives us the fallback position of the New Testament church. When all else is going down, and when hell is breaking loose all around you, and they are attacking you, and every kind of opposition is against you, John writes to the church 60 years after the day of Pentecost, and he says, "Here's your strength. Here's the fallback position of the New Testament church." That Jesus you're serving, the Jesus you're preaching, the Jesus you're singing to, the Jesus that you worship, the Jesus who is in the church by the power of His Spirit, He is, He was, He ever shall be, Almighty God. You're not worshiping a religious figure. You're worshiping Almighty God. When you call the name of Jesus, hell trembles. When you call the name of Jesus, heaven stands at attention because Jesus is Almighty God. Hallelujah!
Only in John, only in the Gospel of John, does Jesus talk at such length about His identity. John is the only Gospel writer who intentionally records what we call the "I Am" statements of Jesus. "I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me." Now, it's invisible in the English versions of scripture, but it's very obvious, very obvious, plainly obvious in the original languages of scripture, the Greek. In English, that is a pronoun and a verb, "I am." But in Greek, Jesus isn't using a pronoun and a verb. In the Greek language, Jesus is reaching back into Hebrew history and He's picking up a revealed name of God that was first given to Moses at a burning bush. When Moses said, "God, who do I say sent me? I'm going before the most powerful man in the ancient world named Pharaoh. Who am I, little meek Moses, gonna say sent me?" And God said, "You tell him, 'I AM THAT I AM' sent you."
See, you're not self-sufficient. You need oxygen. We can prove that you're not self-sufficient. We'll hold a rope around your neck, we'll cut off your oxygen, you won't be self-sufficient after about a minute. You need air to survive. But God needs nothing to survive. Our God is self-sufficient. He's all-sufficient. He's ever-living and never dies. He's never had a sick day. He's never called in sick. He's never had to make an excuse for why He didn't show up to do what He wanted to do. God is all-powerful. And so this carpenter from Nazareth reaches back into Hebrew history, all the way back to Moses in the burning bush out in the Sinai Desert, and He picks up this ancient name of God, "I AM THAT I AM."
And this is a real problem because this carpenter from Nazareth is using this ancient, revered name of God to refer to Himself as though that name belonged to Him. You know what? It did belong to Him. Jesus was Almighty God robed in a body of flesh. I don't care how many theologians and televangelists and denominations today may have missed it. The Pharisees knew what Jesus was saying. Read John chapter 8. The Pharisees knew what He was referring to. There's a running argument between Jesus and the Pharisees for three and a half years, and in John chapter 8, it rages back and forth. Jesus looks at them and He says, "Before Abraham was, I AM." Now, that's not correct English either. You say, "Before Abraham is, I am," or you say, "Before Abraham was, I was." He's mixing his tenses, but it's not English. It's not a pronoun and a verb. He's speaking. Jesus is reaching back into the heart of Hebrew history and He's picking up the revered name of God. "Before Abraham ever set one foot on his journey to follow an invisible God to Ur of the Chaldees, to a land he'd never seen before, Abraham ever started that journey, I was there because I called Abraham to start that journey. Before Abraham was, I AM THAT I AM was back there." That's the God we serve. John said, "That's the God who's in the apostolic church." Hallelujah!
It goes on a few verses later. Jesus said, "If you believe not that I AM, you shall die in your sins." If you don't believe that I'm Almighty God, you'll die in your sins. There's no power in the name of Jesus unless He's Almighty God. But if Jesus is Almighty God, there's all power in heaven and in earth given to the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus, that at the name of Jesus every nation, now and every tongue, should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I'm glad there's somebody in Australia that knows that Jesus is alive and well.
It rages on. They argue back and forth. Jesus finally looks at them and says, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man" – He's prophesying of His crucifixion. Something's going to happen on the day that you lift up the Son of Man. "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know." Something will happen on that day, and you will know that I AM." See, Jesus could just speak His name at a well, and a nameless woman's life could be changed forever. Jesus could just speak His name during a storm, and a disciple named Peter, when he said, "It is I, be not afraid," and a disciple named Peter was empowered to walk on the raging waves. Jesus could speak His name in a garden at midnight, and an entire battalion of tough, rough, trained Roman soldiers fell on their back like cordwood. "I AM THAT I AM."
Now, the original form that was spoken by God at the burning bush is called the Tetragrammaton. And the guys are going to help me and show that to you. This is the original form of the name of God in Hebrew. And that particular word, the Tetragrammaton, "I AM THAT I AM," it carries within it the concepts of being eternal and self-existent, a being who is omnipotent and omnipresent and omniscient. And the Jews called that name Y-H-W-H, or because W and V transliterate over the centuries, Y-H-V-H, Yahweh, or Yah-vay. And those four letters, and remember, the Hebrew reads, uh, different than English. It reads from the right to the left. So if you start with the little letter on the right, those letters are Yad, Hey, Vav, Hey. Hebrew consonants. Hebrew was written in consonants, and those who read it aloud had to supply the vowel sounds. So we can't really literally translate that name into English. We call it the Tetragrammaton, four-letter name, the holy name of God, the unpronounceable name of God, really, the ineffable name the Jews called it. And we would say simply, to pull that name into English, we just have to say "the Eternal." There's nothing else. "The Eternal" in the English language. We would later come to use the consonants J-H-V-H instead of Y-H-W-H. And so Yahweh or Yah-vay became Jehovah.
Now, something really odd happened in Jewish culture and history. There was an ancient command, an obscure command, buried, uh, in the word of God. Guys, we're gonna need to leave PowerPoint for a minute and we'll come back. There was this ancient command, buried in the word of God, in Leviticus 24, verse 16: "He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death. And all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death." See, there was this ancient, obscure command in the word of God that said if you blaspheme the name of God, they put you to death. The Jews, after they had backslid and backslid and backslidden, finally they returned from the Babylonian captivity in 450 B.C. They were so afraid that God was going to pronounce judgment on them again that they began to overreact to verses like that in their law, in their own law. And so they began to reverence the name Yahweh, the Tetragrammaton. They began to reverence that name so greatly that they outlawed the use of it. Imagine this: the people of God in 450 B.C., the Jews, they say, "We want to reverence the name of God. We certainly wouldn't want to blaspheme His name, or He'll judge us." So we're not going to say His name. Here are the people of God, bound from saying the name of their own God. 450 B.C. Finally, they modified that law. First, it was the common people who couldn't speak the name. The priests could. But then they said, "What if a priest blasphemes the name of God accidentally?" And so they modified the law. First, it was the common people couldn't speak the beautiful name, Yahweh. And then it was the priests who couldn't speak that name. And then finally, only the High Priest could speak that name in all of Israel. Only one man could speak the name of the God they claimed to serve. And he was only allowed to say it one day a year, on the Great Day of Atonement, in behind the veil, in the Holy of Holies. And from history, when Simon, who was the last High Priest that we know who used the name of God, when he died in 270 B.C., they made a total prohibition against saying the name of God among the Jews. Imagine the people of God, and nobody could speak the name of their own God. Adonai became the substitute word. Adonai, or Adan, is Hebrew and it means "Lord." It is the substitute word for YHWH. So when the rabbi would be reading the Old Testament scriptures and he would come to the name of God, he would say out loud, he would not pronounce the name of God. He could see it right there. It was in the word of God. It was the God they claimed to serve. But when he saw the name of God, he would say, "Adonai, Lord." And the congregation would respond, in Hebrew, "Hashem, the name." They knew what was there. They knew what he was seeing, but they knew he was prohibited by their own law from saying the name of their own God. And they would simply say, when he said, "Adonai, Lord," in replacement of the name of God, they would reply, "Hashem, the name." That eventually became the only way the Jews would refer to the proper name of God. Read it. You see it, but you can't say it. So you say, "Adonai," and their congregation says, "Hashem, the name."
Think with me. Think with me. By the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, the Jews, none of them had heard the proper name of God spoken for 300 years. Not a priest, not a high priest, not a commoner, no one had heard the name "I AM THAT I AM" for over 300 years. That is why John's Gospel, the Gospel written to the church 60 years after the day of Pentecost, is so striking. Because suddenly, a carpenter from Nazareth appears on the scene, and He is casually using this holy name of God, the name no one has been able to say for over 300 years, and He's using it casually in reference to Himself as though it was His, because it was. Yes. So the Jews, they're outraged. They are absolutely insane with anger. They understood who Jesus was claiming to be. He was not claiming to be like God. He was not claiming to be a part of God. He was not claiming to be sent from God. He was claiming to be God. He was using the name that only God could use about Himself. And so even if modern theologians do not understand the identity of Jesus Christ, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, Sadducees, they all understood it. You see, there's a Hebrew code, sort of. I'm not talking again about Drosnan's book. I'm talking about an ancient code buried in the Bible in Hebrew for the Jews. Every time Jesus spoke and He said "ego eimi" – that's the Greek version, it's just a pronoun and a verb to you – but it identified Him every single time, at every single turn, as Yahweh, Jehovah, the great God of the Old Testament. And that becomes incredibly more important as we go to the crucifixion because remember Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, on that day, something's going to happen that's going to let you know that I AM THAT I AM."
Now, much of the Old Testament poetic literature, especially, was written in what we would call a coded form. The Jews did this. Uh, I read recently that a young Jewish boy who was three or four years old had memorized massive sections of the Torah. And it's very common for a Jewish boy that's five years old, six years old, to have memorized the entire Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. Uh, it's just the Jews have this from ancient times. They have always stressed the memorization of scripture so they can meditate on it. We would do well to learn from that, apostolics in the 21st century. But the Bible, God gave it in what we would call almost a coded form. It made it easier to memorize. If you've got a Bible, especially a King James Version, take a look quickly at Psalm 119, which is the longest chapter in the Bible. Psalm 119. You have 22 sections. If you've got a King James Bible in particular, every one of those 22 sections will be prefaced by a Hebrew letter. That Hebrew letter, the first one is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Go down just above verse 9, and you'll see another letter. That's the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Go down another eight verses, and you'll see, uh, the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and so on. 22 letters in all. And Psalm 119 is divided into 22 sections, all headed by, uh, a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order, in sequence, and all comprising eight verses. And the Jews would memorize Psalm 119, which would certainly look different in Hebrew than in English, but the verse structures are similar. In Psalm 119, because it's a poetic book, and they would memorize it because every one of the eight verses under section one begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Every one of the eight verses under section two begins with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Every letter under the third section begins with the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and so on. It made it easy to memorize. You find this in several places in the Old Testament. The book of Lamentations, written by the prophet Jeremiah, very, very similar. First chapter, Jeremiah, 22 verses, each verse is started with a Hebrew letter of the alphabet in order. Second chapter, 22 verses, each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. Third chapter, 66 verses, the pattern. And if it was in English, is AAA, BBB, CCC, etc. 22 letters in Hebrew, each verse beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Fourth chapter, 22 verses. Fifth chapter, 22 verses. That's the book of Lamentations. The Jews had several places in the Old Testament where God gave them His word through anointed men of God, moved by the Holy Ghost, so that they could easily memorize the word of God. So the Jews got fanatical over time. They got very good at this. They could analyze scripture and they could memorize huge blocks of scripture. And it's astounding to me that they knew so much about God's divine arrangement and they missed totally God's divine atonement. I don't understand that.
One of the details the Jews were so fanatical about was this name of God. The name of God. They all knew what it was. They all knew where it was in scripture. They memorized scripture. They could see it. But can you imagine memorizing verse after verse after verse after verse of scripture, and you can't even say out loud the name of your own God? It was that way for 300 years.
There was another obscure command in the law, Leviticus 21, verse 10: "He that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on garments, he shall not uncover his head nor rend his clothes." The high priest. Not an obscure command of the law. The high priest is not allowed to uncover his head. He's not allowed to rend his garments. Other Jews rent their garments when they mourn, they tear their garments, but not the high priest.
Jesus comes on the scene, and He begins using this holy name of God, the ineffable, unpronounceable, revered name of God. He uses it casually in reference to Himself. He agitates and irritates the High Priest and the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, until they plot to kill Him. And finally, we come to His trial, and they are badgering Jesus, trying to get enough evidence against Him to crucify Him. And this is Mark chapter 14, verse 61: "And he held his peace, and answered nothing. And again the high priest pressed him, and asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the son of the Blessed?" You got it, guys? And Jesus looked back at him. And said, Jesus didn't use a pronoun and a verb. Jesus looked back, eyeball to eyeball with the High Priest of Israel. And when the High Priest said, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Jesus reached back in ancient Hebrew history. Jesus reached back to Moses and the burning bush on the far side of the Sinai Desert. And Jesus looked back at the High Priest and He said, "I AM."
And in a courtroom of law, in the middle of Israel, Jesus used the holy name of God that that High Priest and all of his predecessors had not spoken out loud for 300 years. And Jesus didn't stop there. He said, "And you shall see the Son of Man, He'll be sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." And the High Priest got so angry, Caiaphas got so angry at that moment, that he reached up in a fit of rage and he ripped his garments, he rent his clothes, and said, "What need we any further witnesses? You've heard this blasphemy. Jesus, this time has used the name of God in a court of law. He's now guilty of death." They've got what they want. But what Caiaphas didn't realize is he was playing into the very plan of God. Because when he reached up and ripped his garments, at that moment, the high priesthood in him shut down and transferred over to Jesus of Nazareth. So when Jesus went to the cross, He didn't just go as a sacrificial lamb. He went as the High Priest who ever liveth to make intercession for you. He was your sacrifice, and He was your High Priest. The Old Testament priesthood system, the Levitical system, literally, literally was shaking on its hinges and its foundations. And at that precise second, the high priesthood passed over to Jesus Christ.
Jesus has enraged the Sanhedrin repeatedly. He has used this unutterable name of God, this revered name of God, over and over and over and over again. This time, He has done it in a court of law. So they rush their prisoner to Pilate and they demand that he be crucified. And they force Pilate, you know the story, through political pressure, they manipulate him. "If you don't crucify this man, we'll tell Caesar that you're no friend of his." Pilate is seemingly impressed with Jesus. His wife is awakened in the night by a dream concerning Jesus. But through political pressure, they force Pilate to carry out this execution. And Pilate seems powerless to save the Nazarene, even though he wants to. But Jesus never did need saving.
And so we come to this unique statement in the Gospel of John, written to us, the last Gospel, the Gospel written 60 years after the day of Pentecost, the Gospel written when all the other writers had died through persecution, and John is left to write these words. In John 19 and 19: "And Pilate wrote a title, and he put it on the cross, and the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." It's very specific here, extremely specific. Watch this. "This title then read many of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near to the city. And this title was written in Hebrew, and in Greek, and in Latin." Hebrew for the Jews, Greek for the Greeks, Latin for the Romans. "Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered, I like this: What I have written I have written." Literally, in the Greek language, "What I have written, I will not change one little bit." I don't know if Pilate knew what they were up to, but I do know that Pilate is impressed with Jesus.
Guys, go back to the first slide of the PowerPoint. We'll carry it through. In an unusual move, Pilate himself writes an inscription and has it placed on the cross of Jesus. It is in three languages: Hebrew for the Jews, Greek for the Greeks, Latin for the Romans. It says, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." It is just another epitaph on a cross, a method of execution. Just another epitaph to the Greeks. Just another epitaph for a dying prophet to the Romans. But the Bible tells us, as many of the Jews begin to gather and they begin to read the inscription over this Galilean, the chief priests suddenly see that they have a problem. And they rush to Pilate, insisting, "Don't write, 'The King of the Jews.' Write, change it. Pilate, add words to it. Change it. Modify it. Write, 'He said, I am the King of the Jews.'" And Pilate said, "What I have written, I have written." I think I know why they were upset. When the Greeks and Romans couldn't have cared less, on the cross, over the head of Jesus, was written this inscription in Hebrew. Remember, Hebrew reads from right to left. Yeshua, Melech, Yehudim. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Yeshua, the Melech, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. That didn't bother the Greeks. They could have cared less. That didn't bother the Romans. They could have cared less. But remember, the Jews have been trained from ancient times to read the scripture. The Jews have been trained from ancient times to watch the word of God and see what patterns there were, to memorize scripture. And they were very used to looking at the first letter of words, or the first letter of verses, so they could memorize scripture. And when they looked at that, they saw something that really condemned them. Because what they saw when they looked at that was Y-H-V-H, Yahweh, Jehovah. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, is God Almighty, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and He shall reign forever. Oh, somebody stand to your feet for a second. Somebody throw your hands in the air for a second. And somebody thank God that the Jesus we've been worshiping all week isn't just a dead prophet. He isn't just a dead teacher. He is alive! He's Almighty God! Hallelujah! Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh, somebody give God praise! You don't realize you're praising the only God. You're praising the living God. You're praising the God who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Lift up a jubilee shout! Jesus can set you free because He's God! Jesus can heal you because He's God! Jesus can fill you with the Holy Ghost because He's God! It wasn't a carpenter's blood that was being spilled that day. Acts 20:28: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which God he hath purchased with his own blood." It was God's blood that was being spilled that day. It was God robed in that body of flesh. And so you weren't purchased with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, you were purchased with spotless, powerful blood. It can deliver. It can heal. It can set free. It can redeem, because it's the church of God. This is the church of God. You are the church of God that He has purchased with His own blood. Hallelujah!
Oh, we see even after their enemy was dead, the chief priests were still nervous. They come to Pilate. They say, "Pilate, you got to fix this. That deceiver said that after three days he was going to rise from the dead. You got to do something." Pilate makes a puzzling remark. I think this is in the Gospel of Matthew. He said, "Go your way, make it as sure as you can." So they went and locked up the tomb. "Make it as sure as you can." I don't know if Pilate knows what I know. You are not keeping Jesus in a tomb. If that man said he's rising from the dead, guess what? He's rising from the dead. If Jesus said there's going to be revival in the last days, guess what? There's going to be revival in the last days. If Jesus said, "I'll pour out My Spirit on all flesh," guess what? He will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. Yes! Yes! You people are not going to let me finish one single sermon this week, are you? I love you people.
John's Gospel culminates, really, in chapter 20 at the end of the chapter with a revelation from a guy that gets a lot of bad press, Doubting Thomas. Please beware. You know why Thomas, for 2000 years, has worn the label "Doubting Thomas"? Because he missed one church service. That's enough. Meddling. Back to the message. Thomas misses it when Jesus appears after the resurrection to the disciples. And Thomas says to them, "Guys, you're dreaming. Guys, it's wishful thinking. Unless I can put my finger in the nail prints in His hand, unless I can put my hand in the spear print in His side, I'm sorry, guys, I can't believe it." It's science fiction. And all of a sudden, Thomas is at the next church service, and Jesus appears in their midst once again. And He calls Thomas over. And He says, "Thomas, I want you to put your finger in the nail prints in My hand, and I want you to put your hand in the spear print in My side." Thomas, although we call him Doubting Thomas, he was actually the first disciple to catch this particular facet of revelation. Peter, obviously, had revelation when he said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Thomas adds to that. He augments it in a certain way that's amazing.
You see, there were two words that they used in the Greek language. They are "kurios," "kurios," which is the same way we would say "sir" or "master." And then they had this word "theos," "theos," God, absolute divine deity, supreme divinity. It is Thomas when he stands there in the presence of Jesus and he sees mortal wounds, wounds that would have killed anybody, gaping holes in Jesus' hands that shed blood, and a huge gaping mass of a hole in his side where a Roman spear went up and blood and water came forth. And when Thomas sees a mortal wound, a wound that he knows would kill anybody, and he sees that mortal wound in the body of a living man who's standing there talking to him, Thomas gets it. Every light in his brain comes on. And he says, "My Lord, my Master." But you're just not my master. You're just not my teacher. You're just not my rabbi. You're just not the one I follow. You're just not the name I worship. My "kurios" and my "theos," my Lord and my God.
But Jesus turns to Thomas and says something that should be really important to you. "Thomas, you are blessed because you've seen Me and then you believed. But Thomas, in the 21st century, in the nation of Australia, there's going to be hundreds of people that have never laid their eyes on Me, but they are going to believe. And they're more blessed than you are." Thomas, I'm more blessed than the disciples. I'm more blessed than the apostles because I never got to see Him. I never got to touch Him. I never got to walk with Him or talk with Him or sit down by a seashore with Him. I never got to see any of His miracles back then. But you know what? I'm filled with His Spirit, and I'm among His people, and I've still got His Gospel. I'm more blessed than they are. Oh, I need an Australia Jubilee shout! I need an Australia Jubilee shout! Yes! Yes! Hallelujah! Yes! Yes! Sit down. I love you folks. Goodness.
John, the Gospel written 60 years after the day of Pentecost, the Gospel written to the church. There are so many little hints and shadows. No other Gospel, Jesus talks so much about who He is. It's everywhere. I love this little scripture. I noticed this just earlier this year. The problem with messages like this is God keeps adding scripture to them, and they get so long. Like, this isn't a message, this is a series. But anyway, that's another story for another time. John chapter 20, verse 11: "Now, this we know, the end of this story. But they didn't. Mary stood without the sepulchre weeping." Hold this verse for me for a sec, guys. "And as she wept, she stooped down and she looked into the sepulchre." Now, I've been in Jerusalem a few times, and I've been to the Garden Tomb a few times, and I know exactly where she was standing. It's amazing. Scripture is so accurate. You walk through this rock face, through a door cut in the rock, and you walk inside. And as every Jewish tomb of that era, you walk first into kind of a holding area. And that is where the mourners, the family, would crowd in this cave in the rock, and they would stand and they would weep over their lost loved one. And if you look to the right in that tomb that is in Jerusalem, you will see another cave, and it's quite small, but there are two flat stone beds in it, and they were carved out of rock. And it's a flat stone bed where the bodies of their loved ones were laid. Now, they tell us that archaeology has proven that only one bed in this tomb was ever used, and no body decayed on that particular bed. So, whatever you go do the math. But what is very striking to me is that when Mary looks into the tomb, it's quite amazing. It's very, very specific. Everything in this Gospel is specific. The Bible doesn't waste words. She stooped down, she looked into the sepulchre. I can visualize in my mind, I know exactly where she's standing. She's walked into the holding area. She is turned down to the right. She is now stooping and looking into the tomb where those two beds, and the one that Jesus' body occupied. Archaeology shows that it's on the left. And so she's looking in through this, and she gets the shock of her life. Because the next verse says, "And she seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain." Mary looks into the tomb and she sees one angel at the head and one angel at the foot of this flat stone bed where the body of Jesus had lain. I have a question for you: Where else in all of Hebrew theology do two angels sit on a flat surface and face each other? You'll get it in a second. You'll get it in a second. There was a box in Old Testament Israel called the Ark of the Covenant, and there were two angels that faced each other because between them was the Shekinah presence of Almighty God. Guess who was in that tomb? Guess why Jesus came out of that tomb? Jehovah God was in that tomb. That was the body He wrapped Himself in. That's why Jesus could come out of the grave. That's why Jesus can save you. That's why Jesus can do a miracle in your life because He's Almighty God. If you believe that, I want you to get on your feet. I want you to get into an aisle, or I want you to get up to the front, and I want you to lift your hands because God can heal somebody right now. God can fill somebody right now. God can deliver somebody right now. That's right. That's right. That's right. You're not worshiping a prophet. You're not worshiping a dead man. You're worshiping Almighty God. Oh, lift up your voice! Yes! Yes! Hallelujah! Yes! Yes! Oh, come on, Australia! You're not worshiping a prophet of an ancient religion. You're worshiping the only true, living, Almighty, ever-living, never-dying God! He is, He was, He is to come! Oh, lift up your voice! Hallelujah! Yes! Yes! Jesus! Yes! Jesus! Yes! Jesus! Yes! Jesus! Oh, yes! Thank God for revelation! Thank God that we know who He is! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Ah, you feel that? That's the knowledge of the greatest revelation in all of scripture: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." And Jesus reached back and grabbed that name and said, "Guess what? That one Lord has come in flesh to you." Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Oh, yes! Oh, yeah! Yes!
You know, you could be, perhaps, in a sense, almost a little disappointed in John. You know, John, I know you're writing to the church, but other Gospel writers, they tend to end their Gospel with the ascension of Jesus. You know, that's exciting. That's a great way to end the Gospel. Jesus has ascended up into heaven. John, you don't end your Gospel like that. Chapter 21 doesn't refer to any of that. John said, "We all know Jesus ascended to heaven. We've been preaching that for 60 years." He said, "You see, John just didn't write the Gospel of John. He wrote three epistles and he wrote a book that you might know of called Revelation." John said, "It's a fact that Jesus ascended up into heaven. He said, I've got something a little bit even more exciting to share with you." From Revelation chapter 19: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name, he had a name, he had a name written, that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood." How could he?