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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 4th Quarter 2022: On Death, Dying, and the Future Hope

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 Rebellion in a Perfect Universe

02 Death in a Sinful World

03 Understanding Human Nature

04 The Old Testament Hope

05 Resurrections Before the Cross

06 He Died For Us

07 Christ’s Victory Over Death

08 The New Testament Hope

09 Contrary Passages?

10 The Fires of Hell

11 End-Time Deceptions

12 The Biblical Worldview

13 The Judging Process

14 All Things New

I'm Cameron DeVasier and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

Pastor Howard, this is lesson number 7 in our On Death, Dying in the Future Hoped series of lessons.

Yes, and we would typically be just ahead of halfway, but we're actually halfway.

We didn't record that, we didn't practice that at all, but the reality is I was looking at 7 and I remembered we had already talked before about how there's 14 lessons in this particular quarter.

So this, when we finish this 1, this is the halfway point lesson here.

So that's not the significance of course of this week's lesson.

Not that we're excited about that, it's been a good series of lessons.

I have actually really enjoyed these lessons and I'm sure the Sabbath school classes that you guys have been a part of at your local church have been really, really high quality and great and the content of this whole quarter's lesson study has been very blessing, great blessing to me And this week's title is Christ's Victory Over Death.

Well I put that together the talking points for this week.

Let me tell you something, I was a little bit on Sabbath afternoon, I was looking at the introductory comments here in the lesson and they were talking about how of course there's the death of Christ but it wouldn't mean anything without the resurrection I thought we're gonna dive into that and then it brought up another thing like by the way we're not in heaven with Christ he's got to come back and get us another point and then at the very bottom it said all that aside this week we will look at Christ's resurrection and all the convincing evidence he gave us to believe in it.

So all those little exciting things are what I'll outline next week.

So next week's study it was already teased in this week's study so they must believe it's a very good study and I'm sure it was but this week's study is good as well.

Yeah we haven't even prayed yet and I'm just really chomping at the bit here.

You can tell us our talking points for this week.

Okay Heavenly Father we are so thankful for the Word of Truth and the Spirit of Truth that gives us an understanding in your Word.

Father, I pray now you'll guide our study, guide this Talking Points presentation, that it would be a blessing to the field, both the Sabbath School teachers and students, and Lord, others that may just be dropping in and learning for the first time about some of these things.

We just ask your Holy Spirit to teach us all that we may become more like Jesus we ask in his name.

Yeah as I mentioned there was a the Sabbath afternoons introduction basically is an introduction to the next week's lesson but this week the whole thing is about the biblical evidence for the truth of the Christ's resurrection.

And to that end we have 3 talking points that break this down.

Number 1, there were many witnesses to Christ's resurrection.

We take that from Monday and Wednesday, but the firsthand testimony was not scattered in here and there, it was quite broad, and we're gonna take a look at that.

Talking point number 2, others resurrected too.

So it wasn't just Christ as an individual's resurrected, there was actually a host of people resurrected and they had testimony and witnesses to that.

So we'll look at that coming from Tuesday and Thursday's lesson.

And finally, talking point Number 3, Christ's enemies fear his resurrection.

And oddly enough, that comes from Sunday and Friday.

This is kind of the bookend of this week's lesson, so we'll show how that works out in just a moment.

But at this point, I'd invite us to take our Bibles out to Matthew chapter 28.

A lot of our evidence that we see as scripture records it is found in Matthew 27 and 28 and we're going to take a look at that today.

But Matthew chapter 28, why don't you read verses 2 through 4.

And I'll read 11 and 12 after you go ahead Matthew 28 verse 2 and behold There was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back this I know this is an aside, but it always gets me.

There was a great earthquake for an angel All the angels come at the Second Coming.

Anyway, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it.

His countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

Now this is obviously, we didn't talk about the context, but this is clearly at the tomb of Jesus, after his crucifixion and death and burial.

And now it's early Sunday morning, there were guards stationed, which we're gonna come back to.

We'll come back to the enemies thing at the end.

But there was a whole assemblage of people there, the Roman soldiers who were guarding the tomb of Jesus.

And as you said, an angel comes down, an earthquake, verse 4.

And it says in verse 4, and the guard shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

So the very first witnesses to the resurrection event of Jesus were the Roman soldiers themselves who were standing guard, right?

And in verses 11 and 12 it says, Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that happened and when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and it goes on basically they bribed them to say something else But clearly what they had to tell was a story of the resurrection.

Quarterly on Monday brings this out, paragraphs 3 and 4.

I was gonna put it in the notes but it's a little bit too long to include in there.

But it says here, the Roman guard told the leaders, quote, all the things that had happened.

Implicit in this account is the idea that the guard saw the resurrection they had a story to tell if not what would their words mean an angel came down from heaven moved the stone sat on it and the guards fainted The next thing they knew the tomb was empty.

Maybe while the Romans were unconscious the angel took away the body of Jesus.

Maybe the disciples did or someone else stole it.

Whatever happened, the body of Jesus was obviously gone.

Now the next paragraph, an angel had from heaven coming down, the men fainting from fear, and a tomb being empty would have been disconcerting enough to the religious leaders, but they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers to keep these men quiet and implied that whatever the soldiers told them to keep these men quiet, the fact that they did this implied that whatever the soldiers told them disturbed them deeply.

And what they told of course was the erection of Jesus.

So the soldiers' firsthand testimony to the religious leaders who doubted Jesus so-called, the very first eyewitnesses of the resurrection were the soldiers that were guarding the tomb.

But it's ironic that they guarded the tomb from somebody who couldn't possibly raise from the dead.

Like there was a little bit of foreboding there.

Yeah, I don't believe you at all, but we'll put a hundred guards out there just in case, right?

Well, then after the guards themselves are witnesses to this event, right, the next thing the scripture records is the 2 Marys, Matthew chapter 28 verses 9 and 10.

And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, rejoice.

So they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him.

Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid.

Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see me.

So the 2 Marys had encountered the angel, and they learned that the tomb was empty, but then on the way back to tell other people about that, Jesus himself introduces himself.

So the very first witnesses to Jesus and have a conversation with him.

So they weren't just witnesses to an empty tomb.

Now, if we go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 3 through 7, we could break down and like, and then Jesus saw this group of people.

Then he went to the group of the disciples.

1 Corinthians 15 does a good job of trying to basically summarizing the credibility of this eyewitness account.

It says, verse 3, For I delivered to you first of all all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that he was buried and that he was a rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and that he was seen by Cephas that is Peter then by the 12 or 6 after that he would had he was seen by over 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remained to the present, as he was writing at that time.

After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

And this, of course, is Paul writing, who then testifies in verse 8.

Then last of all, he was seen by me also as 1 born out of due time.

So Paul, interestingly enough, is giving a defense of his own apostleship here to say, hey, 1 of the criteria for being considered as an apostle was having seen Jesus, right?

And he's like, well clearly after his resurrection these people saw him, these people saw him, hundreds saw him, and then I was last.

And it basically outlines that Christ did not resurrect and then just see 1 or 2 people and then drift away.

He was here for 40 days or more and was seen repeatedly by his close followers, by his disciples, and then even afterwards by the Apostle Paul.

Now let's spend just a minute on this Apostle Paul thing because as I mentioned and the Scripture makes clear, 1 of the criteria, for instance, when they were replacing Judas, 1 of the criteria is you had to have been a follower of Jesus, had seen him personally in his ministry.

And the question could come up, well how could Paul qualify with that?

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Talking Points 4th Quarter 2022: On Death, Dying, and the Future Hope

07 Christ’s Victory Over Death

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