In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of the 40 days that Jesus spent on earth after His resurrection. He explains that during this time, Jesus trained His disciples to shift their focus from external things to internal revelation, from the flesh to the Holy Spirit, and from the law to life. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about a turbulent airplane ride to illustrate the need for Christians to rise above fear and rely on the Holy Spirit. He concludes by urging the audience to prioritize their personal encounter with the Lord and the experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is our annual event, Summer Conference. May this not become a routine meeting. For we do not know if we have next year. And there are people asking me, how about next year? And I say, you know, I really don't plan for next year's schedule. I don't plan for next year. I only know what's happening this year. And I only know what's going to happen this summer. I only know what's going to happen now. I don't even know if I'll live next year. So don't ask me about what's happening next year. The Barbados Sisters get ahold of this year. We pray that He will return next year. Then we shall meet together in His presence up there. Then do you still need a preacher? Even though I'd be back to preach, no one's going to listen. When Jesus comes back, may we just pursue the Lord well this year. If He delays His return, one day we shall all depart from this world. Yesterday morning I visited a patient. He was my brother. And he was 17 years younger than I was. He was about to go. The doctor said he can die any time. Therefore I had to visit him yesterday. And I just couldn't know, I didn't know what to say. Because he was in such a suffering. I could not comfort him. So I stood next to him. And I said, Lord, You have given me strength just to stand up here. He is so much younger than I am. Yet he cannot even speak. He cannot even see well. Neither can he hear well. He was in such a terrible shape. But now I can stand here. And Lord, if You give me one more day on earth, I will pursue You with that. Because worldly people have a very vain life. And his wife said, don't bother to come because you are going to the conference, sir. But I come because he told me he can die any time. I don't want to come back from conference and he is gone. I have to come and see him. Dear brothers and sisters, our life is full of vanity. This world is vain. Therefore, seeking and pursuing the Lord is the greatest blessing. Therefore, come to the conference and pursue the Lord well. In this coming four days, may the Lord prepare our hearts well. So our mind will be controlled and disciplined by Him. And do not let loose. From the morning to the evening, pursue the Lord only. We praise the Lord for having Brother Ravenhill here. And also our Brother Yun from China. And a lot of people ask me, who is Brother Yun? I say, well, he is a heavenly man. I know his true name, but I can only tell you his nickname. Since he comes from a heavenly man, that means he doesn't want to tell you his true name. Come to listen to our Brother Yun. And these two brothers have been greatly used by God to start a revival elsewhere. Therefore, we shall come and pursue the Lord well here. We don't come just to sit and listen to preaching. But to pursue the Lord with our hearts. Come and pray for the meeting. Pray for yourself. And there are four things we need to pray specifically. First, to pray for the Lord's presence. Don't be a meeting of preaching. Without the Lord, everything is in vain. Secondly, pray that we will come and meet with the Lord. Thirdly, we pray that we will receive revelation through His Word. Fourthly, we pray that we have assured experience of Him. Therefore, at the end of the conference, we will all be changed. And don't stay the same when you depart from the conference. Then woe to us who speak and woe to us who listen. Therefore, pray earnestly for the Lord. And there is a prayer time designated before each meeting. It is very important to come and pray before the meeting. Let us read the Word of God now. First, Matthew Chapter 28. Verses 1 to 10. Let's read it together. After the Sabbath, the first day of the week, when the sun was about to rise, Mother Mary of Moldava came to look at the tomb. Suddenly, there was a great tremor, because the Lord's messenger came down from heaven, rolled up the stone, and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning. This was like lightning. His garment was all over the place, even like a dead man. The angel said to the woman, Don't be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was on the cross. He is not here. As he said, he has been resurrected. Come and see where the Lord is. Go and tell his disciples that he has been resurrected from the dead, and that you have gone to his house. There you will see him. I have already told you. And they departed from the tomb, and they were very happy. They went to report to his disciples. Suddenly, Jesus met them and said, May you be safe. They went forward, holding his feet, and bowed to him. Jesus said to them, Don't be afraid. Go and tell my disciples that they have gone to his house. There you will see me. We will read from verse 16 to 20. As we read from verse 16 to 20, In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I commit myself to you, as I have admonished many of you, to follow my commandment, that you may bow down to the Lord, I know that you are with me until the world is finished. Well, we will read from chapter 1 of the Book of Exodus. Verse 1 through 3, And I have already prepared all the scriptures, First of all, we have to understand what does it mean by having 40 days of training. The 40 days of training. What does 40 days mean? And there are so many stages in the life of the Lord. And that 40 days is just one stage of His life. And you can say there's 8 stages in the life of Jesus. First of all, when He was... the world became flesh. And then the days of His life on earth. The living... the life of His... The third stage is the cross. The death of Christ. The fourth is His resurrection. The fifth, the 40 days after His resurrection. The sixth is His ascension. The seventh, after His ascension, He entered into His glory and enthroned. The seventh stage talks about His reign. And the eighth, that He shall return in His glory. And these are the 8 stages of life of Jesus. Therefore we all shall remember these 8 stages of life of the Lord. And whatever we speak upon will be within these 8 stages. The world became flesh. And then the days of the man on earth. And then the days on the cross. And the death of Christ. The fourth is His resurrection. And the fifth is what we're talking about, the 40 days. The sixth is His ascension. And the seventh, He's entering into glory and enthroned. And that's the time that He reigns. Lastly, when He returns in glory. We're all waiting for the eighth stage of life. All the seven has accomplished. Now we're waiting for the realization of the last one. We are so close to His time of return. Because all the prophecies have been realized. And all the things that happened are pointing to the fact that He is coming back. Therefore we shall wait for His return. And this time we'll share about those 40 days, the fifth stage of the life of the Lord. Why there's 40 days of training? In each stage there is a function and there is a purpose. In this fifth stage there is a purpose and significance. And 40 days are for a very significant training. After His resurrection, He stays on earth for 40 more days. In order to do this great thing, which is turning the apostles from the era of Old Testament into the era of New Testament. And what is the realm of Old Testament? In the time of Old Testament, everything is external. Everything is done in the flesh. Everything is according to the law. And everything is according to the words. And what is the realm of the New Testament? In the New Testament time, everything is internal. And everything is according to revelation. And everything is according to the life. And everything is according to the Holy Spirit. And it's very hard for a man to turn from what's in the Old Testament to what's in the New Testament. That's why Jesus used the 40 days to do this great transformation. The Bible is for the entire church. And not just for that very first group. Therefore these 40 days are also for you and me. And Jesus has to finish this transformation on each one of us. To turn us from the realm of the Old Testament to the realm of the New Testament. To turn us from external to internal. From what's of flesh to of revelation. From law to life. From words to His Holy Spirit. And that was the purpose of those 40 days of training. Therefore the Lord wants to train us through those 40 days as well. So that we can truly enter into the realm of the New Testament. Therefore brothers and sisters, this is such a very precious realm. And in those 40 days, the risen Christ appeared. Everything He did was very important. And these 40 days have been recorded in 6 chapters of the New Testament. In Matthew 28, Mark 16, and Luke 24. It is the very last chapter of each Gospel. John 20 and 21. And Acts chapter 1. And these are the messages for the conference. From Matthew 28 all the way to the first chapter of Acts. In those 40 days, the Lord remained on earth. Every word He spoke. Everything He did. Is important to us. And it's for our training. What for? Let me say it one more time. So that we be changed from what's external to what's internal. From what's flesh to revelation. From law to life. From words to the Holy Spirit. May we all get turned around at the end of the conference. And to be a true Christian in the time of the New Testament. In these 40 days of training. In those 40 days. And there's a common point in these 6 chapters. And in these 6 chapters. In the first chapter. Initially it seems like Jesus appeared to them in His flesh externally. Yet while He spoke. He suddenly disappeared. I always marvel when I read something like that. If I'm talking to the Lord. Suddenly He just disappears. Then I'll be so amazed. I'll be busy looking for the Lord. Where is He? And the funny thing is those disciples they reacted. They didn't bother to speak to Him. They weren't amazed. And that's the significance of those 40 days. Because Jesus was training them to turn from what's external to something that's internal. To turn from what's flesh to revelation. From law to life. From words to Holy Spirit. Are you able to memorize these 4 things I just said? From external to inside. From flesh to revelation. From law to life. From words to Holy Spirit. We will all turn from words to Holy Spirit at the end of the conference. And I pray that you will say I didn't get help from Brother Z. And because no one can really help us. But I have met the Lord. And I have experienced the Holy Spirit. And we have all been filled by His Spirit. How about that for conclusion? Forget about Brother Z. Forget about the words he spoke. It's alright. I won't feel bad. But I will feel bad if at the end of the conference you say I don't remember anything. If you say I met the Lord. Then you better forget about me. And we shall all pursue the Lord. We shall meet with Him in these 40 days of training. And in these 40 days the Resurrected Lord appeared. Actually these are 2 in 1. In those 40 days they did nothing but recording the appearing of the risen Christ. And the risen Christ appeared in those 40 days. That's why we say the training of 40 days. The purpose is to turn from external to internal. From flesh to revelation. From law to life. From words to Holy Spirit. And this shall be the direction we pursue after the conference. And this shall be the direction we pursue all our life. And we talk about resurrection. And you are to talk about resurrected Christ. We better know what is resurrection. First of all the fact of resurrection. And resurrection is the center of our faith. And how does it refer to our faith in the Bible? There are 2 things in our faith. First, to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Second, to believe that He has been risen from the dead. And these are the center of our faith. In order to become a child of God, we become a Christian. The key point is that we have to believe in His resurrection. And the fact that we are saved to receive His eternal life. The key is that we have to believe that He has resurrected. Therefore pay attention when you read the Word of God. Because God never said believe in my son's death. Because we don't have to believe in death. Everybody believes in death. The whole world believes that Jesus Christ died. But the key is that He resurrected. Therefore our faith lies upon His resurrection. And the challenge to our faith is whether He has resurrected. And the focal point of our faith is that He has resurrected. Once we believe that He has risen, then we are saved. Believing in His resurrection, we are now children of God. All our paths are within His resurrection. Therefore, resurrection is the center of our faith. If you go around and ask Christians around the world, what do you believe in? What do you believe in? I have been a Christian for 30 years. I don't know how to reply. Two points. First, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Secondly, I believe that He has risen from the dead. Anybody still doesn't believe that? If you don't believe it, then you cannot participate in the breaking of bread. Because resurrection is the key of our salvation. And we believe Jesus is risen. Anybody still have doubt? If you don't believe, please stay afterwards, I can talk to you. And dear brothers and sisters, resurrection is the greatest thing. Certainly, the life from the resurrection. Whenever we believe that the Lord is risen, and that's the time we receive the resurrected life. What is that resurrected life? That is the life of the Lord. Because outside the Lord, you find no resurrection. Entire creation does not resurrect. And Jesus, not only He was risen from the dead, while He was alive, He was the resurrection. He said, I am life. I am resurrection. Therefore, when He was alive, He was resurrection. He has overcome all death. Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus has risen. And His life of resurrection is a new life to us. We can know many things, but not knowing His resurrection. Who knows of His resurrection? This is something very strange to us. And it's a realm we never touch. Therefore, the life of Jesus' resurrection is the greatest life of all. And thirdly, the power of His resurrection is the greatest power in the entire universe. There is no greater power than His resurrection. And do you know why that is the greatest power? Do you know what kind of power lies within the resurrection? The power of resurrection is the power that overcomes death. And before Jesus was born, the greatest power in mankind's life is death. And in that 100 years, in the past 100 years, human beings have done great. We have achieved much. I travel far all the time. I visit different continents and witness the greatness of man's work. It's like man can do almost everything. And they can challenge anything. However, there is one thing they can never challenge. That is death. And no matter how great you are, if you cannot overcome death, all you have achieved is nothing but vanity. You shall continue to live in sorrow and weakness. Because death is the greatest power. And the relative I visited yesterday, he is at the verge of death. And I said, Lord, the power of death is surely great. And I thank you for I have received from you eternal life. And he is also a saved Christian. So I tell his wife, thank the Lord. Even though I cannot bring his life back, but I know he is saved. Therefore, he will not fall into the power of death. But we have eternal life. And his wife says, I have been thanking the Lord for that. So we are not sorrowful. And neither am I sad. Because we are all children of God. We all have been saved. And whether you are saved or not becomes crucially important at the time of facing death. And no matter what I can preach to him about, nothing is greater than salvation at a time like that. And the resurrected power has overcome death. While he was able to walk, as a go visit the servant of God who is gifted with healing, because that is your only hope. Because even the best doctor from UCLA told you there is no hope. And the best equipment is not able to help you either. And they told you the truth. Since you are a child of God, go ask for God's healing. And I am not capable, but can I tell you one couple of people were able, but they did not want to do that. And while finally he could not move anymore, I went to see him and said, how come you do not seek help from those healers? And I said, I saw how they performed healing miracles. And the other day, my sister said, those who are healed, come up to the stage. And I actually was criticizing her. And I said, you did not even bother to pray first. You did not even lay hands on these sick people. And there are about 15,000 people in the congregation. All she said was, come up if you are healed. And I said, okay, you are famous for this. And I will see that you will fail one time. After you finish preaching, you do not even pray, neither lay hands on people, you think people are healed this way? While I was criticizing my heart like that, suddenly the crowd just rushed forward. I saw people got off their wheelchair and pushed their wheelchair forward. And they put their cane under arms and moved forward. I truly saw the great power of God that day. There are so many people went forward. Yet she was not loosed. One by one she asked, how were you healed? And the sick man explained what happened. And you have a cane with you. Were you able to walk before? No, I could not walk. Now are you able to walk now? Yes, I can walk now. She said, walk now. And so he walked. And, okay, now someone would stop walking, running. And he started to run. And you have legs in trouble? Stomp your feet hard. And so then, after all this time, she said, you are truly healed. And she really was very, very careful, detail about it. And then she prayed for him. And the minute she touched him, he fell to the floor. I have seen a lot of healing crusades before. I have not seen something like that before. Truly the great power of the Holy Spirit. And this old lady came forward. She said, I am healed. And she prayed for her, and she fell to the floor. A doctor came forward. She said, I am not a sick man, I am her doctor. And I am here to testify that there is no way she will get cured. And so the lady said, okay, come forward, since you are a doctor. And she prayed for him, and he fell to the floor too. You truly saw the great power of God that day. Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus is risen. And things like that are happening in every corner of the world. Don't think Americans are not fervent to God. Actually, the healing miracles occur the most in this country. A lot of children of God have been healed. And you don't see other countries happening like that. And this is a country who exalted the name of the Lord, who is the Risen Lord. Therefore, they are blessed. They are not blessed because of their scientific development. And here we have the most number of Christians. Therefore, the highest number of people not born of the Lord. And the highest number of preachers and ministers. Therefore, most number of people got healed by God's grace. And that's why this land is so blessed. Dear brothers and sisters, resurrected and overcame death. And the science is so well developed today. I went to Asia and I hopped on this 747. And that is the pride of our science here in this country. And you don't see accident often. One time, on my way to Asia, something happened. There was this Caucasian person next to me. This person likes to talk. And he keeps on talking to me. And he was quite humorous. And he was very eloquent. I am able to preach but I am not good at socializing. So I just listened to him. Suddenly there was a problem with our airplane. And it was going up and down in the air. It was very uncomfortable sitting in the plane. A lot of people started vomiting. And my neighbor next door, suddenly he was in such a terrible shape. And he held on to the chair. And the captain said, please fasten your seatbelt. We just entered into the storm. And I thought, well that was a poor mistake. It must be your mistake. You should be able to fly above the storm. And we were being shaken up and down and we were so sick of it. And my Caucasian neighbor was so afraid. I said, are you afraid? He said, everybody is afraid. I said, well I am not as afraid. I said, are you a Christian? He said, yes I am a Christian but Christians are afraid. I said, you are a Christian. Do you believe we can overcome death? He said, but I am not ready to die yet. He was so afraid. And it was about ten minutes long. It was really hard to bear. And then the captain announced, we have passed through the storm. And every passenger was so rejoicing. Yeah, we all have passed through this accidental death. But we can never escape from the final death. If the Lord delays His coming, we shall all go through death and see Him. And then you will see the power of death in front of you. But remember what I shared with you. We have this resurrected power that greatly exceeds the power of death. Dear brothers and sisters, In Acts chapter 2 and 3, Peter was the very first person to witness the resurrection of Christ. Through miracles and wonders, he testified that the Lord is real. He said, you know it! And through God's set purpose and foreknowledge, He was turned over to man. And through the hands of the wicked man, you have crucified Him. Yet God has delivered Him out of death and raised Him from the dead. And that is the very first time the word resurrection is mentioned in the entire universe. And Peter was the very first man who testified about His resurrection. He could not be bound up by death. Therefore he quoted verses in Psalm 6 how they talk about the resurrection of Christ. And I really respect what they said. And Peter was the very first person who testified about the Lord's resurrection. Because he spent 40 days with the risen Christ. Therefore he was able to testify. But David never had experience. He never even saw Jesus. But because of the revelation surpassing all time and space, therefore Peter said David the prophet he saw the risen Christ. And he pointed to Him and said David was surely great. And there are so many times in his songs he would talk about Jesus' resurrection. And even Peter referred to the resurrection he had to use what Dave said. That I always set Him at my right hand side. And I will not be shaken because He is at my right hand. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue rejoiced. And also my body remained in hope. For I know You do not abandon me to the grave. Neither let my body see decay. And therefore Peter said the songs of David you all know it. He died. And he was buried. His grave is still among us even till this day. But he was the one who saw the resurrected Christ. Therefore he was able to point it to the Lord You will not leave my soul in the grave. Neither let my body see decay. He was a great man. David and he talked about resurrection so often. In the Psalms there are four Psalms. Remember from 115 until 118 these four Psalms focused on the resurrection of the Lord. And Jews did not understand resurrection. But they knew they all noticed these four Psalms were quite different. And their scholars referred these four Psalms as Harry. We all know these four Psalms talk about the resurrection of Christ. We call them the Resurrectional Psalms because Jesus has resurrected especially Psalms 116 and 118 and you see the Spirit of the Lord through the mouth of David in the first-name basis he talked about his own resurrection. Therefore these are two great Psalms. In Psalm 116 he kept on proclaiming he said the court of death entangled me and the agony of grave grabbed hold of me. David wrote a psalm when he was alive that Jesus entered into Hades and went through the greatest warfare Devil knew this is Jesus Christ now we have the most severe battle. Devil with all their might they tried to keep him there because if the Son of God cannot get out of it then everything is over with. Yet if the Son of Man comes out then Devil is over with. So for three days and three nights great battle was happening and at that set time Jesus Christ risen and that is the hope of the entire human race. He has become the Savior of Church for two thousand years. He is risen. He said the court of death you deliver my life from death and you save my eyes from tears my feet from stumbling and in the greatest agony in Hades He announced the hope of resurrection He said I am in the presence of my Lord and I will walk on the land of the living and that is the hope of resurrection and dear brothers and sisters Jesus did not say that for his own sake but for his church but for his children of God in the presence of my God and shall walk in the land of the living after he said that he made a second proclamation and I shall hold the cup of salvation and praise the Lord and we have to give thanks to the Lord for what he has given to us in his words because it is resurrection then we can have salvation and the resurrection is the most important part of salvation first the Lord is resurrected and therefore I will take up the cup of salvation and praise the Lord and in the Old Testament time you see the Lord you always refer God as the Lord and what is the cup of salvation the salvation is too great you cannot see salvation so how do I know I have a portion in this how do I know I will surely experience the salvation but we say the cup of salvation that is a different situation there are two meanings of cup in the Bible first talk about a portion now I have the cup of salvation therefore salvation is my portion in this great salvation I have a portion of it and it is in my hand this is mine and the second meaning of cup means to hold onto now it is in my hand I hold onto it I am sure of it I will for sure experience it and that is the cup of salvation therefore I take up the cup of salvation and I praise the name of the Lord and every Sunday morning we have breaking bread meeting we break the bread we drink from the cup we have to understand the meaning of the bread and cup the bread is the body of Christ and the cup is the New Testament and that is the greatest salvation and the New Testament is that New Covenant is salvation therefore pick up our cup and say this is the New Covenant and there is wine in my cup and that wine is the blood of the Lord therefore through the blood of the Lord I am here to receive the New Covenant Sunday morning we shall all partake in the cup and bread we shall rejoice greatly for that because we shall have the cup in our hand oh a great salvation the great New Covenant is now in my hand and now in my hand is the New Covenant do you have assurance like that? and if you don't make sure you hold up high the cup and look there is cup in my hand so the New Covenant is mine the salvation is mine therefore I am sure of it brother and sister who sit in the front row make sure you pray for them on Sunday because you have a personal relationship with the cup this is your body and this is your assurance that's why I say I take up the cup of salvation and praise the name of the Lord shall we praise the name of the Lord make sure you hold on tight to the cup hold on tight to it because this is your body and this is my assurance I know Jesus is mine New Covenant belongs to me salvation is mine and that is the cup of salvation and praise the name of the Lord and in Psalm 116 there is a third proclamation and in the sight of the Lord the death of sins is very precious why do you say it is precious? and he is not talking about death of anybody but the death of sins and since I am so old I think you are going to see my death one day you shall rejoice rejoice and one time a brother says you shouldn't say that it is inhuman and after you die if I rejoice then I think your family will cast me out of your house I said well there are two sides of this thing a brother who is dear to me and passed away I feel bad too but sometimes we overly grieve so I say don't be so sad don't be so sad as if you are people without hope because you shall see him again because he is not bound up by death we shall all see each other again in the Lord do you believe that? you can cry but don't cry to this extent and dear brothers and sisters we have the death of Jesus Christ that's why in God's eyes the death of sins is precious every sin's death is also a testimony of how death how resurrection can overcome death therefore when God sees death of sins and in those deaths he saw the resurrection of Jesus Christ that is why in the eyes of God precious is the death of sins and I also have run into death of brothers in China and I couldn't let go I could not go and visit because it wasn't safe and neither would they allow me to visit and so we said we cannot see for the last time but we shall see each other again in the house of God we shall see each other again in Psalm 116 this resurrection of God he said I will walk in the land of living in the presence of my God David was surely a great psalm writer when it comes to Psalm 118 he said I'm still in sorrow yet I will not die and I will thank him for his deeds and that is the great faith of Jesus Christ because he doesn't need faith for himself he said all this for our sake so that church can have the greatest hope and then he proclaimed again he said the gate of righteousness for me shall open a gate of righteousness and I'll walk right through it and I shall enter it and praise the Lord and that is the spirit of the Lord that praises and that shall open for me the gate of righteousness what is the gate of righteousness? the gate of righteousness is the gate that facing death the gate of righteousness is in front of the gate of Hades and the gate of Hades was the greatest power everyone who enters through the gate of death can never return or come out of it but this is the very first time that gate failed because Jesus entered and he came out of it therefore opened up for us a gate of righteousness and that's the gate of his resurrection I shall enter that gate and praise the name of the Lord and then he said all the righteous men shall enter and righteous men does not refer to Jesus Christ here it's referring to us children of God everyone's been bought back by his blood and the battle he went through for us in Hades has earned for us his fame he has come out of the gate of death and we all came out of the gate of death with him therefore the door of the gate of death can no longer be shut for us who have the sign of the precious blood that gate is ineffective this is the gate of the Lord now and all the righteous men shall enter and these are wonderful songs I really wish I could study with you in detail they are truly precious and at the end he made an announcement he said that first stone the stone rejected by the builder has become the first corner stone and in the entire in the entire world there is no other name given by which we can be saved and this is from Psalm 118 Jesus Christ is the first stone rejected by the builder the high priest representing all Jews and they did not like Jesus they did not approve of him and abandoned him but God has chosen Jesus Christ to be the first corner stone of the great building of church in the Bible stone refers to resurrection in the entire Bible other than the verse that says stone hurts to death all the other stones refer to resurrection if you don't believe me just challenge me every time in the Bible when the word stone is mentioned it all refers to resurrection trust me I have studied well he has become the corner stone Jesus Christ has risen what is that first corner stone? that talks about the base the foundation and Jesus has risen and he is the base the foundation of salvation he is also the foundation of church and the stone Peter referred to that day no other name has been given by which we can be saved and when he wrote other letters he elaborated more on this issue he said the Lord is stone he is the living stone stone that has life this stone is a life stone it is a stone that with life it will grow and he is the first stone and you and I are built upon him we all grow from this stone and in the two thousand years of time there are so many of us have been growing out of it shall we praise the Lord for that we shall praise him greatly and there are so many saints in the world we are all part of that stone growing out of the stone the second meaning of stone the first stone is like a standard he was that very first stone and we the subsequent stones all share the same life we all are like him from within and at the end we shall all like him from without death is not the final thing for us through death we shall wear something glorious we need to see the entire picture of his salvation he is that first stone he is that standard and we shall be just like him isn't that great shall we thank him for that praise the Lord he is that very first stone and at the time not many believers yet Peter says something truly great and I really admire his faith at that time the gospel preaching effort was limited to Jerusalem and they couldn't even overcome Jerusalem not to mention to make nations revival to preach to all nations try to put yourself in the time of Peter that it's a great thing he made and I think I wouldn't dare to say something like that if I were him I may say may more people be saved in Jerusalem and may God be preached to Jews through Jerusalem but Peter says something like in the whole world so many nations and when we read it now 2000 years afterwards we have to worship the Lord from within indeed the Lord's name being preached to all nations now I'm not saying all nations being saved but I have to say every corner of this world has heard the name of the Lord and every time when I visit China and I worship God for China I went to every part of China I've seen so many children of God and I started visiting China about three decades ago and I asked their leaders how do you preach gospel they said no we didn't we didn't preach gospel to all Chinese and it's useless for us to preach I said then how come you have so many congregations he said tell you the truth I don't even know it just happened I thanked the Lord for that and I've seen three generations now when I first went in there were people older than I am they're all gone now and I've seen people at my age and now I see a lot of people younger than I am they said brother help us to receive the Holy Spirit I said well you guys should two years ago I went in I spent about five days with them and a couple of leaders came to me and said brother help us to pray together to receive the Holy Spirit and I said when I first came to China and you know being filled by the Holy Spirit was the sign of underground church at that time and I did not even talk about that topic when I was here because you guys were better but how come I come now and none of you had experience like that and then you are seeking help from me and then you have regrets and there are three young leaders and the next year I heard they've been arrested I thanked the Lord for that because He is the strength and there is nothing that can overcome Christians He has grown into so many Christians they are like Him from within and they will also be like Him from about because He was the very first corner stone dear brothers and sisters our time is running out I just want to return to Matthew for the forty days and here they specifically talk about two marries and those are the overcomers among children of God they were the most outstanding ones they are wonderful these two sisters sometimes the Lord you know they are good brothers too but how come when we read the Bible there are so many good Christian sisters and I thanked the Lord later on because they followed the Lord all the way to the cross and thank God there is one brother also went to the cross that's John Peter did not follow the Lord all the way to the cross John went all the way to the cross and I said Lord that's not good because only one brother and then I suddenly remembered I heard elder brothers preaching when I was young he said that the ratio of brother versus sister who love the Lord is one to three because there is not enough brothers who love the Lord as many sisters and after I heard that comment I did not agree and I said I think I love the Lord more than you do there are quite a few sisters who do not love the Lord as much as I do yet that was not necessary Mary was a great sister they were knowledgeable all they did was they saw the Lord and they were drawn by the Lord and the love of the Lord was so great it was so great that even three little women without fear and followed him and they loved him so much they even went to the graveyard early in the morning in the wilderness that's why they were the first group of people who heard about the news of resurrection and that was given first by angels you are seeking the Lord he is not here he is risen and that was the first message of resurrection given by angels not only did he talk about the fact of resurrection but also the realm of resurrection and this realm we never entered in he is not here he is not in the graveyard he is not in the tomb he is not in the world he is not in the material world he is risen and after Jesus died they tie him up with a linen cloth and they put him in the grave and roll a big stone so if Jesus is resurrected then doesn't he have to untie himself no doesn't he have to roll away the stone no because he is risen and his resurrection has nothing to do with material he just came out like that and that is the realm of resurrection and we shall all live in this realm to pursue the life of resurrection to experience the power of resurrection we shall all experience with all the days of our life dear brothers and sisters and the second testimony was given by Jesus himself and they heard angel saying he is resurrected they were greatly rejoiced they ran back to tell other disciples and the resurrected Christ appeared he said may peace be with you go tell my other brothers that I have risen and wait for me at Galilee and then that's the time Jesus called them brothers no longer calling them disciples Jesus is risen we all have received the life of Jesus we all share the same life and that's a great salvation and the risen Lord said go tell my brothers and the term brothers is very common now for us and it's not that I call you brother or you call me brother but we are all brothers of the Lord that's why we are brothers and their sister complained how come the Lord said go tell my sisters and I said don't feel bad sister because in the eyes of the Lord we are all his brothers do you understand that we are not sisters we are all his brothers there is brothers distinguish a brother and sister among men but before God there is no division we are all his brothers go tell my brothers that I have risen and go to the mountain I designated the mountain he designated there is no name to it therefore it may not be a known mountain as a mountain the Bible refers to kingdom in Matthew it talks about kingdom of God and therefore Jesus termed mountain as most now this is the last time and after Jesus resurrected and to the mountain which Jesus is designated and we have to thank the Lord for that we all belong to this mountain we all can meet with him the risen Christ make sure we meet with the Lord in these four days don't leave without meeting him I remember I went to the summer retreat in Vancouver there was this black brother he really was touched later on he became one of my co-workers he was very emotional after the meeting because it was late I was about to go back he said brother don't go I said what what's up he said look at that black brother he's been kneeling down for an hour he did not want to leave and he will not leave and he will not listen to us why don't you go and ask him to leave and I really loved that brother so I went and said brother get up he said I will be kneeling here forever and I will kneel here forever I said go home go home forever don't stay here forever because we need to close down here they need to clean up so he got up he was truly cute and he became one of my co-workers and then I brought him along with me and when the Chinese came serving together he fell in love with a sister however it was not approved by a lot of Christians in Taiwan and they thought it's impossible for a black Christian to marry our Chinese sister so I had to I could not do but get the leader of church in there's no black brothers all brothers and one of the leaders said brother Z if you have a daughter would you like your daughter to marry a black person I said don't ask me that it hasn't happened and I never despised black people however you just can't help with this kind of criticism dear brothers and sisters and then Jesus Christ includes all humanity all tribes and all nations and to the mountain he designated he spoke and there was a great commission he said make all nations my disciples and actually not many people were with him on the mountain yet I stand here today it's indeed it's the time to make disciples of all the nations do you feel the greatness of his ascension without the power of the Lord how can you make nations disciples and that was a great commission he said go that's a great word and many many people were sent by the Lord to other nations you may say Lord did not send me to other nations then you don't understand the word go here you can stay at home but still go Jesus resurrected we all left the world we are all a person that has been exiled do you understand that and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and they shall all belong to the Lord and teach them to observe all I have commanded you in the past two thousand years so many people talk about the words of the Lord and the reason why we are here for four days is we are all going to learn and to observe what he has commanded and the Lord said then I will be with you always until the end of the age and the words of the Lord is truly great we shall preach the gospel and make disciples of all the nations and then bring them into the Lord and teach him to observe all the Lord has commanded us and then the Lord promised he would be with us all the time therefore we shall all look up to him for his presence let's sing hymn 130 it talks about the authority of the Lord and all authority has been given to me on heaven and on earth all authority has been given to the Lord and he has given to his church the same authority and then we have lived through this authority for over 2000 years no one can overcome the church and no one can defeat the church and there are so many places the church are persecuted you see children got persecuted everywhere but then you also see the power of the Lord and for 2000 years long many churches have been persecuted after the testimony given by Peter it brought in persecution for 100 years and the persecution of the Roman Empire was over 100 years and they have killed more than 1 million Christians and then the Roman Empire went down and all those who persecuted the church have fallen but the church continues to exist because that's the resurrection and triumph of the Lord and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me and the Lord has given us his church the same authority and we shall live in this authority today let's sing 130 together