In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the power and authority of Jesus Christ. He highlights how Jesus shattered the powers of darkness and brought redemption to those who seek him. The speaker encourages the audience to worship Jesus and reminds them that he will come again and rule with all power and authority. The sermon also emphasizes the importance of serving others as a way of ministering to Jesus himself. The speaker references the Gospel of Luke, specifically chapter 24, where Jesus shows his hands and feet to his disciples after his resurrection.

To me, because it happens to be my birthday. It isn't the birthday that troubles me so much. I keep getting older, somehow. But, if you want to put this in ripples, believe it or not, it's true that today I'm actually entering my fiftieth. Don't ask me how old I was when I began, that's a different matter. But anyhow, today I start fifty years and I hope I'm as strong to start the second fifty years as I am today. In the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel, as Luke recorded it, and in verse forty we have what I think is one of the most amazing texts in the Bible. It's a text that really takes my breath away. Verse forty, Luke twenty-four, and when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. You may be aware that in this twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we have a very fascinating collection of the post-resurrection stories of the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a very simple observation that we should make, and I would like to think that they all become real in our time of meditation this morning. Because he says in verse thirty-one, the reason being of course that Jesus was with them, in verse thirty-one their eyes were opened. At the end of verse thirty-two, he opened unto us the scriptures. In verse forty-five, then opened he their understanding. And if we have open eyes, and have an open understanding, and have an opening of the scriptures, we really should gain an inch or two in spiritual stature this morning. It was a very eminent physicist. I'm not quite sure, because there are two men bearing the same name. But Sir Ambrose Fleming is credited with bringing to birth what we call penicillin. And I'm not sure whether it was he or his counterpart called Sir Ambrose Fleming, but one of them said this, that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best attested fact in history. It would have been very easy to have destroyed the Christian faith. The only thing they had to do was not bribe soldiers, or go around telling lies. All they had to do to destroy Christianity was produce the body of Jesus, and we'd know Christianity. But they couldn't produce the body. A year ago, last Easter day, my wife and I were compelled to travel through the country to fill up an appointment. And we set the dial on our radio and listened to preachers, famous and not so famous, hour after hour. And every one of them dealt with a resurrection story, it was Easter Sunday. And every one of them dealt with some personality that Jesus met. One of them came up with a story of Mary being forced at the sepulcher. And somebody dealt with Peter, how the Lord met with him. And somebody took the very wonderful story on the Emmaus Road. But there wasn't one of those preachers, not one of them, that dealt with a resurrection from the standpoint of Jesus Christ himself. What the resurrection meant to Peter, what the resurrection meant on the Emmaus Road, but not what the resurrection meant to Jesus. Now, it was a wonderful story that preceded this on the Emmaus Road, those two disciples. And it said he, he made as though he would have gone further. But they wouldn't let him. And I often wonder in a meeting how much further the Lord would have gone, but we wouldn't let him. We restricted him by our unbelief, by our prejudice, by preconceived ideas. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a miracle. It's a million miracles rolled into one. Because he said, if I rise again from the dead, because I live, ye shall live also. There's another miracle tied in with this. I just wonder, in our common language, I just wonder however in the world Jesus, pardon me, Peter kept his mouth shut on this occasion. The greatest man who ever lived gave us the greatest message ever uttered, that's the Sermon on the Mount. And when some belligerent kids were asking, they were storming a great meeting not long ago, and one of them said very angrily with his beautiful long hair that he'd waved so nicely, and he was there with his fists up and he said, we've lived for two thousand years, is there no answer to the dilemma of the world? Can we ever have peace? Is there no formula? Can anybody think it out? Well, I think it was G.K. Chesterton, who was a Catholic but a very profound thinker, nobody reads him much these days, but G.K. Chesterton said, Christianity has not been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Christianity has been tried, found difficult and rejected. The formula for world peace was given in that amazing Sermon on the Mount. The greatest man who ever lived gave us the greatest message ever uttered, and now he has performed the greatest miracle that was ever done, even in the long sequence of his own miracles. You remember somebody said, if you don't behave yourself, I'll put you to death, and Jesus kind of smiled and said, well thanks for the information, but you know, no man can take my life from me. When it goes, I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again. The miracle being a combination of what he did, a miracle of what the Spirit did in Romans 8. As I said the other day, there is no work of the Holy Spirit that isn't majestic. When you think of him brooding over a lump of dirt that was shut up in the universe and he breathed, moved over it, wherever the Holy Ghost goes there is movement. He moved over chaos and brought forth cosmos. He moved over the matrix of the Virgin Mary and conceived Jesus Christ. He moved over some men in the upper room and he turned them out penniless, but not powerless. They had no priorities in the social set up of the world. They were very ordinary men, but they were transformed because the Spirit of God, and that same Holy Spirit who created the world, who created the Christ, who created those men in the upper room to go out and stir the world for God. That same Holy Spirit breathed on the dead form of Jesus. The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead. Paul says in this profound chapter in Romans chapter 8. But I've tried to imagine that Peter might have come up with a lot of arguments here. When Jesus had risen from the dead, and remember the message of the early church was not the death of Jesus Christ. Most of our preaching we spend defending a dead man. Maybe that's why the kids think Christianity is dead, or God is dead. But the message of the early church was not the death of Jesus, the message of the early church was the resurrection. When Paul went to the intellectual capital of the world, which was Athens, if he'd stopped just before he got to the last section of his sermon, like maybe some of us should, but he went on, and when he got there, and he suddenly started talking about the resurrection, there's the gate, get out. You mean that this man you talk, actually rotten, this has never been heard of. You see the resurrection is actually the exclusive property of Christianity, the exclusive property of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And Jesus had done everything that was designed in the redemptive work of God, it was all finished, it was all completed. I don't know what Brother Sonny said, but I guess he's right, he's a Baptist, so he must be. And I guess he spoke the truth when he talked about Jesus on that tremendous island of going down, he descended into hell. My, my, my, nobody ever dared to paint a picture of that. They painted some wonderful pictures. But nobody's dared to paint a picture of Jesus walking down the corridors of hell, and every demon shrinking, and the voice of Jesus there saying, I am the resurrection and the life. I've never seen a picture of Jesus at the end of the trail, standing there triumphant and saying, look, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and hell. They're not round the waist of that old bachelor that lives in Rome, I wouldn't tell you his name, but guess. The keys of the kingdom are not hanging round his shirt, they're the keys that were there on the girdle of the Son of God. I am the resurrection, I have the keys of death, and the key of resurrection will fit every grave, whether it be a pharaoh or somebody lost in the mud and blood of Vietnam. I get thrilled to death when I read that chapter there in, is it Rome? In John 5, 28. The day in which all the linden graves from earth's wide bounds and oceans farthest coasts, there's going to stream up to him a countless host singing glory to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Everyone, the sea giving up its dead, everybody secretly murdered, every king, every monarch, every caliph, every maharajah, every czar of Russia, every king of England, the voluptuous kings of France, makes no odd. They died with pageantry and pomp and circumstance, and again they were liquidated like some mother's son this morning with his head blown off in Vietnam and they don't know where he is. He just left a trail of red vapor when his body was liquidated. This poor, silly, sinsick world needs to think again. It kind of thinks it finished with Jesus, it hasn't even started with him yet. He's at the end of the trail, he is the Lord. Jesus has returned here in the upper room and he showed them his hands and they sighed. You see the strength of Jesus Christ was this, he was what he preached. Now whether you and I as preachers are, I don't know, you better answer that yourself. But Jesus not only preached meekness, he was meekness. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And he was the meekest person that ever lived and he's going to inherit every part of this world. One day the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. He was not only the essence of meekness, he was the essence of power, true and truth. Buddha, when he died, was still seeking truth. Because Jesus says I am truth. Some of them are all hoping that they might live. He says I am, I am life. You see that's the ridiculous thing about men. Isn't it stupid to try and put eternal life to death, and that's what they try to do? Isn't it the height of insanity to try and destroy death because, destroy him by death because he was eternal life? Isn't it so ridiculous to try and put the light of God out, because he is eternal light? And when he'd done everything he was, he had designed to do. He'd put death to death, he had led captivity captive, he had gone into the caverns of eternal darkness and said to every one of those startled spirits, here I am, I'm alive forevermore. And when he goes to his disciples, he does a prosaic colorless thing like this. He showed them his hands and his feet. I wonder Peter didn't blow his top as we say. I wonder he didn't get angry and say, but Lord this is outrageous, this is ridiculous, this is preposterous. Now I know you appeared to somebody just the other day, and Lord I've been thinking a few things over you know. I've been taking a kind of gallop poll on you. And I got down by the pool of Bethsaida the other day and listened to people and they said, you know that fanatical fellow, that Jesus that did a few miracles, he's never coming back. He made a boast that if they killed him he'd rise again, but nobody's seen him. And then I went down a little further down the road to the bazaar and I listened to people there and there wasn't one of them believed on you. You know Lord I've been thinking this thing over and I hope you'll just take a little advice. I think there are certain reasons why you weren't very popular. If you could drop certain things out of your message, if you're going to preach to the world again, I suggest number one you kick that rather brittle thing called repentance. Drop that, folk don't like that. And another thing they don't like is restitution. Boy you seldom hear the message on repentance anymore these days, but you'll hear less preaching on restitution. And you can talk your head off and you can say the Lord has delivered you from this, that and the other. But if you owe that fellow $500 and you owe him it now, you're still the biggest sinner on earth. He doesn't care a hill of beans, whether you stand on your head or speak in tongues or sing like an archangel. You owe him, the block in his mind is you owe him $500 and you better sell your car. Or sacrifice and even get black wall tires on it. And pay him the $500 and he might begin to believe. You see Lord, your message has got too many spikes, let's cut a few spikes off. Repentance and restitution and then resignation. You know, taking up your cross and being submissive. Now if you could eliminate that you'd really get somewhere. Because I heard some theologians in the Sanhedrin talking the other day and they said, you know, he got a lot of good stuff but boy he got some things I couldn't take. And then Lord, I've got some more ideas if you could listen to me a minute because well, I think we should have some big crusades. And say you make me your advance manager, you know. And I'll go around raising funds. We never had much in the bag, I don't wonder Judas got disappointed. But I know a lot of rich men around Jerusalem and in the district and I could get them to launch an evangelistic society. And I think you could put me right at the head of the list and make me your manager. Did you grunt? Who grunted there? Somebody grunted around here. You need a business manager, you need an advance man. And you know Jesus you've been around for a few days and it's not going to work unless you do something. I mean showing us your hands and your feet, oh dear. Do something that'll stir it. Now I've got the whole thing worked out for you in the program. And if you, you know you can take the world, you can take the world in the next six days without much effort. I'm not forgetting you died for us and you rose again. But you see lots of people are saying, he said destroy this body, this temple, the temple of my body and I'll come back whole and sound and intelligent. And you know oh Lord you haven't appeared to anybody. Now you could be the biggest sensation that the world's ever known because if you let me manage the whole thing I'll really get you a schedule. You see next Tuesday I happen to know the Sanhedrin are meeting in the temple. They're going to meet at three o'clock. And I want you to do what you did just now. You came through without opening the door and without opening the window and you scared us stiff and you stood in our midst. And at four o'clock when they're right in the business session I want you to go in the middle of that session and just say well here I am, I'm the one you put to death. And you know they'll all fall down and they'll worship you. And you'll have captured the Jews. And then the next afternoon I got a bit of information from one of the big shots that away there in Rome Caesar he's gathered many of his warlords and his vassals there and there are going to be thousands of people from the ends of the earth. They're going to have the biggest banquet, they're killing so much food and they're going to have wine and they're going to have delicacies. And I want you to appear to Caesar say about seven o'clock next Wednesday night. You see if you appear to the Sanhedrin you'll get the Jews and if you appear to Caesar you'll get the whole of the Roman Empire. And then when the sensation starts stirring around the world I suggest you go down to the Sea of Galilee and turn it into gold. You know make it a solid block of gold just to prove to these fellows that you have all the power that you said. And then in case they're not quite convinced you know at the end of a road there there's a cemetery. They buried people down in that cemetery in the days of Abraham and ever since they buried them. And you said one day I heard you say it myself. You said one day I am the resurrection and I'm going to speak your word and all that are in the graves. Now let's forget the rest of the world and you just go to that cemetery and speak the word I know you can do it. And you just speak the word and bring everybody to life. Some of them being dead only a week and some of them a hundred years and some a thousand years. And man alive when they all come running into Jerusalem all these people one after the other you've got the whole city. You see you've got the whole world in your hands if you only try. Just a few easy miracles. I know you're the son of God with power and with authority. So what about doing this? Well what about taking up my ideas for a little while? Huh? Do these miracles. Stir the world. Let Caesar know that you're risen from the dead. Let the Jews know you are the son of God. Raise everybody in the cemetery. Change the whole Sea of Galilee into solid gold so we can all walk over it. You only walked over it once. And that's very interesting isn't it? See Jesus didn't walk over the sea every time. He walked when he had to otherwise he took a boat. Some people go to a service and if there isn't a miracle boy it's dead flat. The word of God doesn't mean too much. Miracles are everything to them. Ah no. Jesus doesn't listen to Peter here and take any advice from him at all. One of the great, I think great, modern writers is a man by the name of Eric Sauer. S-A-U-E-R. Maybe you've read his book some of you. He lived in a little corner of Germany. He has a very, very illuminating book called The Arena of Faith. You can get it for less than $2 in paperback. And it's a wonderful exposition actually of the 11th chapter of Hebrews. One thing that he said in that chapter and he didn't mean it in the way that I took it I'm sure. He reminded us that in Asia Minor in the days of the apostles they had some great arenas. You think maybe of the Yankee Stadium or in England we would talk about Wembley Stadium that hold 100,000 people. And we think they're magnificent evidences of our genius. Do you know 2,000 years ago they had stadiums in Asia Minor that seated 300,000 people? Now isn't it silly for a man like the apostle Paul who did every miracle that Jesus did as far as I remember. He raised the dead. He cast out demons. And do you know that Sarah hadn't the sense to go and rent one of those auditoriums and get 300,000 people and put notices around town I'm the greatest miracle worker since Jesus Christ. Now why did he go and just take a handful of well just four or five women sitting by the side of a stream and try and get into Europe that way. Why didn't he go rent the Coliseum? Why didn't he put on a big show and say come on everything Jesus did I'll do it for you night after night. Come and see me. I'll show you the power. No, no, no he didn't do it that way. Oh we get the idea if we only had just a little bit more power or a little bit more money and we could get our marvelous message on one more radio station. There are some fellows started off with one radio station 20 years ago and now they're on 70 and they've no more power than when they started. All they've done is distribute their weakness over the nation anyhow. But oh how we love to think if we could only just get there with a little bit more money or another station the wonderful things we'd do. No, no, no Paul didn't rent any auditorium. If you and I had been going down the road and you see a man, a very learned man. You see what you youngsters should do is be smarter than us oldsters. When you read your Bible you should always have a map of Palestine or the whole of Asia Minor because you can't intelligently understand the New Testament without it anyhow. And when you read about a man that started down here in Ethiopia and he had to go all up there you know all those hundreds of miles. You know he said to Queen Candace it's my time to have a year off my, my, my, what do you call it, sabbatical and I want to take a year off and I've got this all planned. I'm interested in this wonderful religion that they have away there in Palestine and if you don't mind loaning me a chariot and a pair of beautiful horses and a chauffeur, I mean a charioteer to drive it. I've got this thing all worked out. I figure the first day we can do about 20 miles and stay at Howard Johnson's and then we can do 30 and stay at the Holiday Inn and the next day we could stay at Quality Courts and you know I'm going to live it up to get there. Now he was a good Ethiopian as black as your boot I guess and he went all the way up that country and somewhere he crossed the Red Sea and there were no bridges, figure out how he did it and then he went up what we would call the Gaza Strip and he went right up there to Jerusalem and he happened to come back the same way. It's an awful long journey even in an automobile and as far as I'm concerned it's too far even in a jet. That's how he went with his horses and his chariot and he was an intelligent man. He was an Ethiopian but he could read Hebrew because he had a copy of the Scriptures and they would only know him in Hebrew and he was a wealthy man otherwise he couldn't have afforded the trip and he made that trip all the way up and all the way back and you know that man was so excited about the Word of God that he let the man drive the chariot and he was sitting there hugging what we would call the Bible and he was reading it with excitement and suddenly some dusty little preacher came up and he says hi. That preacher must have been quite a runner to keep up with a chariot like that I don't think Jim Robertson could do it but anyhow he was really in good condition and he ran after that chariot and he says well do you understand what you're reading and he says understand it oh sure I can read the Hebrew no do you know what you're reading about what are you reading and he was reading about 53rd chapter in Isaiah reading about the Lord reading about the day when he would bruise Satan and lead captivity captive and solve the sin problem of the world but he said I don't really understand it well then said Philip you see how God works things out this is the psychological moment if you'll pardon my big words but I happen to be intelligent and this is the psychological moment you see it's amazing that coming up the road like this you were going that way and I was going that way and I'm the only man in the world that could really answer your problem you see I happen to be Philip the famous evangelist you want my autograph but I'm the famous evangelist Philip and well I suppose it will be hard for you to understand this I see you're an Ethiopian you say you're an Ethiopian but do you know I've just been in a city with my crusade and do you know that every miracle that Jesus did we have done the eyes of the blind were opened the ears of the deaf and the whole city's in a state of excitement it's boiling with religious and spiritual fervor and I've got your answer you see now you just tell your chauffeur there your driver to turn the chariot round and I'm going to take you right back and you can see where the gospel's really working brother I'm going to take you to see people raised from the dead the eyes of the blind opened the ears of the deaf unstopped the lame leaping as a harp you just come at the very right moment now we're having another Pentecost in the city where I've been having a crusade and you're going to see it all you know if you listen to some of these TV programs and there are one or two no there's one and if you listen to them you'd think that faith came by seeing but the scripture says faith cometh by hearing oh you can see an awful lot of stuff and forget it but you can't forget if you really hear his voice and he didn't take him back in the chariot he didn't try to convince him with his eyes he opened unto him the scripture just like Jesus did here he opened their eyes he opened their understanding he opened unto them the scripture and you know once the scripture is open to us there's a perennial freshness about it that text never becomes dull anymore once it's really open by the spirit you go back again and again and again and again and it's as fresh as the manna every morning isn't it now this was a great day in the life of Jesus and all he did was show them his hands and his feet oh why don't you do something exciting you've done all the father asked you to do now come on take the world in the next six days I've suggested how you can do it invade the privacy of the Sanhedrin get there into the secret places of the Roman Empire disturb Caesar and all his warlords go and upset that cemetery I'd like to see a bunch of people come the saints come marching in wouldn't you I mean after all just raise a couple of thousand people just as a sign of what you're going to do eventually and as I say turn the the sea of Galilee or if you like the Dead Sea turn it into gold it really is gold it's worth so much anyhow and Jesus didn't do a thing oh dear he must have missed it don't you think speaking naturally here's his second chance why doesn't he say come on you apostles I'm going to give you a super anointing oh he's going to do that but they're going to have to wait for it and pay for it but say what did this day really mean to the Lord Jesus have you ever tried to think what it meant the moment he burst from the grave I reminded you of that before as Dr. Parker pictured that stone over the grave and the wax over the stone and the seals over the wax and the soldiers over the wax and the seal and the stone and then the devil rolls the sin of the world against it because Jesus must do more than die he must rise again and then when you've got the sin and the stone and the seals and the soldiers and the devil says now every demon you hold that stone there because if he gets out of this we're finished I'm sure the first countdown wasn't at Cape Canaveral the first countdown was that Easter morning devil says hold it hold it you've kept him there for days and nights with only about 60 seconds to go if you can hold it now we've got him and we can fill hell with all the human race and that lovely hymn I think Wesley wrote it didn't he in which he says death cannot keep its prey Jesus my savior he tore the walls away Jesus my Lord out from the grave he arose say what do you think they did in heaven all sitting twiddled their thumbs I guess those angels must have rushed about in excitement saying he's done it he's done it he's risen he's led captivity captive he's given gifts unto men he's alive forevermore Satan has failed Christ has triumphed what do you think it did in hell made them mash their teeth made Satan turn round and roar and say you couldn't do it we couldn't do it he's cheated us I hear people say sometimes oh God oh God bind the powers of darkness why don't you shut up why don't you think of any scripture a scripture you can stand on asking God to bind the powers of darkness he told you to bind them whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven they're always passing the buck if God would only do this look God has done all he can do he'll never give us another single word to the Bible it's all finished there'll never be another Pentecost in one sense the Holy Ghost has given it it's according to our appropriation hell said what are we going to do the only thing we can do is confuse those people get them theologically upset get them divided get division get schism get race system get what they call denominational bias and prejudice and keep them fooling around with trivialities because if ever they discover the resurrection power of Jesus they'll blow us right out of hell it's an awful thing that this morning there are two thousand million people in the world that hardly know a thing about Jesus and the power of his resurrection and all we do we keep coming round and I'm not saying conferences are wrong but sometimes all we do is kind of try and alter your jaded appetite and get you to have a little more interest and put a little more sweetness into the message or something and boast you up so you won't topple down before the next conference this is true everywhere I'm not saying I say this everywhere I go that's why I'm so popular but it's true isn't it you say I don't care I don't like what you preach well I don't care whether you like it the thing is is it true face that if it isn't toss it out if it is humble yourself and seek God oh the resurrection oh heaven got excited they haven't got over it yet and as a matter of fact hell hasn't got over it yet and Satan's trying to keep us all in darkness lest we rediscover that Jesus did what he said he would do it says at the end of the chapter to anticipate for a minute he led them out as far as Bethany and he blessed them and the next verse says he blessed them and then suddenly he was carried up and he says they worshipped him do you wonder that they worshipped him he says this resurrection is only a sign now you do as I say and you're going to get all the wealth of eternity because he said to them they were to tarry until they received the endowment of power which we might talk about tonight yeah the resurrection restored the balance for the disciples the resurrection of Jesus made heaven get excited the resurrection of Jesus sent consternation into hell but think for a moment what did the resurrection mean to Jesus this is the greatest day in the whole world one hymn writer says the day for which creation and all its tribes were made I think maybe it was from this very story that that old English hymn writer Matthew Bridges got inspiration for that hymn crown him with many crowns I love that hymn crown him the lord of years the potentate of time creator of the rolling spheres ineffably sublime he showed them his hands and his feet and Matthew Bridges tucks that away in the hymn too doesn't he those wounds yet visible above him beauty glorified he showed them his hands I remember as a little boy in England we used to sing a hymn in Sunday school those kind hands that did such good they nailed them to a cross of wood those hands that never injured everybody every time he touched he brought life if he picked some dust up and spat on it and mixed it and put it on their eyes he brought sight if he touched somebody with fever immediately they were restored completely if he touched the dead they came to life those hands never did anything wrong and yet they took his hands and they nailed them to a tree why do you grumble when you get crucified you said you'd follow him follow him I didn't think I'd get crucified well there's no other way to get resurrection unless you get crucified those little hands that his mother used to look at little dimpled baby hands don't they look nice do you think she ever thought that one day there'd be a hole driven through them he showed them his hands I don't think the disciples even saw through it at the moment because if they'd seen it they'd have been more courageous than ever because you see that little dimpled hand that his mother washed and that hand that had a nail print in it one day he's going to hold a seven stars in that same right hand and all creation's going to worship him what did the resurrection mean to Jesus the greatest day in his life I'm not sure it was the greatest day in his life I'll tell you how it was the greatest disappointment in his life some years ago I had to cross the United States the plane stopped somewhere near Salt Lake City and I'd often seen pictures it was about I think about twenty years ago when I first started commuting the Atlantic which I did dozens of times and I'd never really seen a cowboy and this man that got on the plane didn't look anything but a cowboy he looked more like a drug store cowboy I'll admit that got an awful big fat tummy on him got immaculate white trousers beautiful white shoes spurs on his boots I mean and he had a gorgeous white coat made of leather with all the rat's tails or whatever they are hanging down there you know and a great big hat a pair of guns slung on his hip and every time the plane stopped that man got out and he walked up and down the tarmac to show us how great he was oh brother was he a cowboy did he show off I happened to be going to Boise for a union meeting with the Baptists I've always been trying to get them on fire it's really a job and we were having a union meeting with the Baptists out there and there happened to be a reception committee they put the red carpet out and these dignitaries came and oh I hate this kind of palaver Jesus never had it and I hate it but anyhow you're to put up with it sometimes and the Lord told us to you know have respect for the simple and support the weak so I kind of take it and these fellas came forward and they bowed very graciously and said this is brother Angel and the cameras flashed and all the rest of it you know this fella got out and he put his hands on his hips and he looked round and he was angry he went as red as a red sunset and he bawled out of his voice who's here to meet me I'm the chief of the radio I'm the chief of the rodeo he said where's my reception committee I'll see to this and he marched across the phone he didn't need a phone they could hear him in Boise I'm sure 15 miles away the way he shouted oh he hollered where's my reception committee why did you leave me here have you ever thought how Jesus felt when he came out of the tomb nobody there not a single person oh the stone was rolled away not to let Jesus out to let the others in he was out before ever they rolled the stone he didn't need the stone moving and when he came out he looked and there wasn't a single person there not one oh Mary was coming up true enough well I would have thought that I mean I know people are ungrateful we're all the same he delivered 10 men who were lepers and only one of them turned back to say thank you but he didn't show up that morning I would have thought Nicodemus would have made it wouldn't you after all Nicodemus was one of the last to get to the cemetery a woman these women a woman a week before he died took an alabaster box of ointment and the scripture is very explicit because it didn't need to tell us but it says it weighed one pound one pound it weighed and it had taken her years all her life savings to buy it and she gave it to Jesus just a week before he died and she should have washed his feet with water but she washed them with tears and she should have dried his feet with a towel she dried it with the hair of her head and a woman's hair is a glory and she should have knelt in front of him and she knelt at the back and nearly broke her neck to get round and she should have kissed his head she kissed his feet and she could have taken oil because there was a cheap oil they used for anointing she used the most expensive thing she had and she put that expensive oil on those blessed feet they were going to have a nail driven through them a week afterwards she put that beautiful pungent, aromatic, expensive ointment on his feet and then she wiped his feet with the hair of her head you get it? it's what you pour out on him you get back on yourself she poured all her life on his feet all her savings she poured the fragrance and it came back on the hair of her head and wherever she went she carried the fragrance and you know the irony of that thing is we don't know who else went to the banquet all the big shots the mayor and all the other big ball players and everybody and there's nobody listed the woman that wasn't on the list is the woman that stole the show and she's the only one that's left on record as going isn't that lovely? don't you think the Lord does have a sense of humor he must have laughed about that I think so so you know even that woman didn't show up that morning at least not at the moment he came out from the dead he's unhinged all the chariots of the devil he's led captivity captive he's given the church everything it was what the hymn writer says the purchase of thy death divide give me with all the sanctified the heritage of love all the riches for God not only gave Jesus Christ but with him he has freely given us all things A-L-L for the day you live for the ministry you have there isn't one thing that God omitted and Jesus purchased it all with his death and there was nobody there to welcome him yeah I would have thought the man out of whom he cast the woman out of whom he cast seven devils would have been there I would have thought that Bartimaeus would have said well I don't know about anybody else that nobody ever got more blessing out of Jesus than I did after all the only reason I can see him get around is because he touched me oh that lovely song you sang the other day he touched me oh he touched me and oh what joy did flood my soul something happened I was blind now I see and I imagine he would have said I'm going to get to the set to that grave and if he's coming out I'm going to be the first to use my God given eyesight to see him but he wasn't there and surely you would have thought Peter would have said well I missed I know I've been a disappointment to him sometimes but boy I'm not going to fail him this time and I don't care what the other boys do they can sleep in if they want but you know I'm going to be there right at the grave and as soon as he comes out I'm going to fall down and worship him I'm going to say all hail redeemer hail for thou hast died for me thy kingdom and thy glory shall not fail through all eternity but he wasn't there what a day of disappointment they didn't believe him you'd think they would have done because he said if you destroy this body this temple I'll raise it up well they'd seen it destroyed they could believe that half of the text why couldn't they believe the other half of the text but oh isn't this true of us when we come here again to the word of God nobody there to welcome him none of the five thousand that he fed none of the lepers that he cleansed none of the lunatics that he made normal again none of the harlots that he received a welcoming committee of none and I say again he'd done the greatest miracle that he ever did but say before you throw your hymn book at him I wonder if they checked up on you this morning how often you and I have disappointed him I wonder how often you could have gotten up a little bit earlier some mornings and prayed or how often you could have read the book and you chose to read something else and how often you could have gone just down the aisle there and minessed into somebody oh you say these disciples must have been embarrassed when he found them all crouched in an upper room hey hold it a minute how tall are you going to stand at the judgment seat when there's a thousand billion people there and the Lord begins to read out the record of your failure of mine let's forget them for a while let's not pass the buck for a while you know when you stand there and Jesus says yes of course you're a big shot evangelist and everybody knows you or you're a famous somebody but you know when I was in prison you didn't visit me well hold it a minute Lord you've got things mixed up I'm sorry you've confused me with somebody else I mean I wasn't even around when they put you in prison when they laid hands on you oh yes I was in prison once down in a city called Houston or in a city called Baton Rouge or somewhere else I was in prison oh not necessarily a prison where you put people in jail but this woman's in prison to poverty and that man's in prison to bad health and this person's in prison to criticism because somebody misjudged them and scandalized them and you didn't come and visit me well Lord if I'd known it was you I want to tell you this that I would have shared my income every week I mean I did buy a lot of things I don't need I bought a boat I use at least once a year and my golf clubs are going rusty and I suppose I have two or three thousand dollars invested in cameras and other things I don't use and you know Lord if I'd known you were in prison I would have shared that with you well the Lord says in as much as you you didn't visit Mrs. Smith you didn't visit me and in as much as you did give that poor evangelist who didn't have so much and you passed on a secret ten dollars to him you didn't give it to me hey Gabriel bring the book and he opens the book and he says on that certain day in June 1970 so and so passed on something to a little widow who only just made it and the credit is not given to the widow the credit is given to that man because he ministered to Jesus Christ because well they're just part of his body oh we'd like to do big sensational things wouldn't we wouldn't some of you boys like to have Billy Graham's chance just for a month and you'd really shake the country and wouldn't you like to do something else on a big scale but when he says why don't you begin at the bottom and minister to the least of my brethren oh why don't you really care for the orphan and the widow if I were to give you all a piece of paper and a pencil this morning and ask you to write your definition of Christianity you'd try and squeeze everything in that definition from the incarnation to the consummation and there'd be some very interesting answers and somebody might be smart enough to just slip into that little book called the epistle of James and give us the best definition ever pure religion and undefiled before God is what to preach to ten thousand people raise the sick cast out demons doesn't say that in mine I don't think it says it in the amplified even what does it say pure religion and undefiled before God is to visit the orphan and the widow and the sick and the needy and oh that gets right down to something really practical doesn't it isn't it wonderful that Jesus never strutted my good friend Dr. Tozer I learned so much from both his books and knowing him personally for years now I remember he said to me one day he had been to a one of the greatest conventions in this country conferences and some of the so called great preachers of the nation were there and he said Len they got up and said well I'm glad to be here because I can't stay the whole week my schedule is so full and I flew in fifteen hundred miles last night just to preach for you to two days and you know like you should be very glad I'm here and you know since I was here we've added another building to this and we're on six more stations and we're on this and we're on the other and one man actually said how many people he'd baptized in the last year and oh he went through such an amazing catalog and you know when somebody does it you've got to try and beat it and the other guy got up and said well it's very nice to have Dr. so and so here but you know during the last year I've been made president of so and so and of course we have extensions in fifteen different countries and we are and he said his piece well that was getting pretty steep but the next guy managed to crown it he lied a bit he exaggerated a bit more and everybody was getting really really tense and then little Tozer if you ever saw Tozer he was a bit not me you know no personality he was a negative personality his head was too big his shoulders were too narrow his legs were too short he never went to bible school in his life but he could teach the teachers and evangelize the evangelists and counsel the counselors and all these big shots were there you know crossing and re-crossing the legs and feeling so big and influential and then Dr. Tozer got up he just blinked his eyes and looked at that vast audience and all those big shots behind him and he said ladies and gentlemen I'm very tired of coming to conferences to watch men strut my those fellows were blessed oh they put their arms around him they didn't they put their boots into him you know even preachers don't like truth there you are the two of us agree anyhow that's truth Jesus never strutted didn't have to the man that knows the most knows the least I knew a lot more about preaching fifty years ago when I started and I was a lot more confidence in the flesh than I have now the older you get the more you realize you don't know hey why not come and sit at his feet let's take a lesson from him this morning he shattered the powers of darkness he brought redemption for every man that will come and in penitence seek him he had led captivity given all the treasure of eternity to the church and he showed them his hands and his feet I think we could sing a verse I asked our good song leader to lead us in a just a chorus that I think you'll know I love this chorus and I hope you know it and I hope you'll sing it not just to enjoy it but sing it as an act of worship to him the Christ of God the one who's going to come before very long as our brother reminded us this morning the one who the world still has to reckon with the one who has all power and all authority the one who one day is going to rule as Iserquart said many years before John Wesley he wrote before John Wesley was around and Iserquart wrote that lovely hymn Jesus shall reign where all the sun that its successive journeys run his kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and reign no more for blessings abound where'er he reigns the prisoner leaps to lose his chains the weary find eternal rest and all the sons of one to bless so let's stand and sing the chorus I shall know him here we go I shall know him I shall know him and redeem myself