Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me now? Good, thank you.
Happy Easter. Christ is risen. Amen. I wasn't going to share this, but this morning I kind of have to.
This quote was too great when I read it this week to not share it. I probably could override these guys, project it on the wall so you can see it, but I'm not going to do that because you know what's going to happen then. You won't see the rest of my PowerPoint stuff. Okay, show of hands.
When I say Watergate, do you know what I'm talking about? Stick your hand up if you know what I mean by Watergate. Okay, people have heard about it. Some, some, no.
Okay, so there's a lot that don't know about Watergate. Watergate was a situation back when President Nixon was in power in the United States. Very, very dark time in life. I remember, I can still remember as a kid being at Holiday Haven campground in PEI hearing that President Nixon is stepping down and resigning effectively over Watergate.
And I thought, what does this mean? This is huge. So what had happened was, without going into all the details, a bunch of guys under the President's regime broke into the opposing party's headquarters and stole a bunch of files and secrets and so on. In fact, I got to go to the Smithsonian a few years ago and walked through and I actually saw the file cabinet where they had taken the crowbars and busted.
It's pretty cool. You see the file cabinet is right there in front of you. And so there was about a dozen men along with the President who were all involved in this. They all knew about it.
And the worst of it was when they got called out. They covered it up. We won't tell anybody. We're going to keep quiet.
We won't tell anybody about this. They all went to prison. The President did. But the rest of them did.
And one of those men, Charles Colson, who was really a right hand man to the President, wasn't Vice President. He was like so close to the President. In fact, he said at one point in time that he would probably drive over his mother or grandmother, grandmother, if the President wanted him to do it. That's how close he was to the President.
Charles Colson went to prison and got saved in prison, came to Christ. And went on and had a prison ministry and had a ministry for years and years wrote many books afterwards. And if you ever get a chance, pick up his book called Born Again and read it and it tells him about the transformation in his life. So here's a quote from him.
I know that the resurrection is a fact and water great proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that the death for 40 years. Never once denying it.
Everyone, everyone of the 12 was beaten, tortured, stoned, and put in prison and some put to death. Most all were put to death, actually. They would not have endured that if it wasn't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks.
You're telling me 12 apostles? Keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible. That alone proves the truth of the resurrection.
I knew I had this. This morning, as you can see up there, I want to speak on the topic, not the topic, a passage of scripture that speaks, I've been going through the scriptures and looking off all the passages that have but God in them. And it goes back to Genesis. I'll probably do this one some day.
And it says, but God remembered Noah. It's not like God woke up on day and says, oh, rats, Noah, it's not going to go. I forgot about him. It's not that.
We'll save that for a message. But that's where it starts. It starts from there. And it goes through the scriptures.
So we'll talk about that one later. But here's one that I read and read over and I thought, well, but God raised him from the dead. And I thought, if ever an Easter Sunday comes along and I'm speaking at Northbrook, and this is actually my first time speaking in 2019, so yeah, a couple of snowstorms cancel. So thankfully this is not one of those Easter's where we had snowstorm because everybody would be pretty disgruntled at the 21st of April.
So but God raised him from the dead. What amazing words. Let's pray. Father, thank you this morning.
We come here. We rejoice. We know the resurrection is a fact. We thank you that our Jesus is alive.
We know the point in us meeting if he's not. There's no point of us sharing a message of hope with everybody in this world if he is not. But we praise you that he is alive and he's alive forever. And we rejoice in that truth today.
Help us, Lord, as we look into this passage to teach your word, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts, not me, but would speak to my heart and speak to everybody's heart, and that we would be changed and learn the words of truth and become more like Christ. We ask in his name, amen. But God, there are two really simple words, but it's powerful in its truth. You know, there's some people were asked, what do you think are the two most important words in the English language?
And the Harvard Business Journal said that the two most important words are recognition and praise. Recognition and praise. When people do a good job, they want to be told to do a good job. They want recognition and praise.
A psychologist said the most important words in the English language are act now. Don't keep saying you're going to do something. Do it. Act now.
Most people like marketing firms and salespeople and so on will say the words thank you. Show appreciation to somebody else. The struggling musician who's trying to make a living when he gets an envelope and says check and close to those are glorious words to him. But for the believer, for those of us who read the scriptures, these two important words, but God, are two words that can change your life, absolutely change your life.
They point us to a great interrupter, one who can powerfully and graciously interrupt our lives with his plans and change our lives forever. You know, the phrase is found about 45 times in the scriptures and it's always followed by a radical change. You were this, but God that. Jesus was dead, but God raised him from the dead.
No one was stuck in an arc. But God remembered Noah. There's always a radical change after those words. Martin Lloyd Jones, a great Bible commentator, he said these two words in and of themselves contain the whole gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's an amazing statement, but they do. So no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter how you've lived, no matter what addictions you might have, no matter how mean you might have been, no matter how nice you might have been, no matter what you have done. But God, if you have a but God moment, it can radically change your life, totally change your life. It doesn't matter what sin you've been in.
It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter what you've said. It doesn't matter all those things do. But that can be changed and transformed in a but God moment when you give your life to Christ.
The first word but is a conjunction in English. Thank you. I got to those who are much more scholarly than me that ask. It means on the contrary.
But you see, if I just do the word but, I'd like to have you over for dinner but I don't have a big enough turkey. I like my brother, but he sings louder than I do. I like my wife but she snores. So if I use it in that way, it's like the, I like my wife but on the contrary she snores.
I like my brother, but on the contrary he sings louder than I do. I like my brother Warren but on the contrary he wears shirts the same as me sometimes. So that's what that means. But if you take the word and put God after but, it changes things, totally changes things.
It means that anything is possible with God the Bible says nothing is impossible. So I want to talk to you today about a real impossibility, a resurrection from the dead. We're celebrating that today. We're here and we've been speaking since 9th or 30 about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
That's what our hope is. That's what our, that's what's, that's the word on our tongue today. Our resurrection of Christ is the ultimate but God moment in all of history. There's nothing like it.
And if God can do that, he can do anything. Our passage will look at this morning says, but God raised him from the dead. Let's turn to Acts chapter 13, if you have a Bible, I also put it up here for you to see from the New American standard. Brethren, sons of Abraham's family and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent.
For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers recognize either him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath fulfilled by, fulfilled these by condemning him. And though they found no ground for putting him to death, they asked Pilate that he be executed. And when they carried out all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the cross and they laid him in the tomb. But God, but God, but God raised him from the dead.
And for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. It was very ones who were now his witnesses to people, to the people. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that he raised up Jesus. You know, difficulty can be measured by the agent performing the act.
A couple weeks ago the piano was over here. Now the piano is over there. And it's staying over there. But, I think it was, I think it was, and Nick, I think, wheeled that thing over there and put it in place.
It was easy. Watch them. It's like, now, if it was, I think you and Shabbomie, I don't go in the piano, but it wouldn't be easy. It would be difficult.
So the difficulty is measured. If I said, the Nick and Baloo, did you guys move the piano? Actually, I think I did say that. Can you guys move the piano?
They said, sure, easy. Did it? And if I went to those little guys and said, people with the piano, sure, easy. And it wouldn't be.
So difficulty is measured by the capacity of the agent doing the work. Easy for Nick and Baloo. Difficult for you at the endo and Shabbomie. You walk by a dead corpse.
Huh? A dead person. I need to bring him back to life. I don't have the capacity to do that.
But God does. But God can do that. So when you bring God into the equation, the capacity to do anything, the impossible, takes place. Not hard for God to raise a dead person from the grave.
The resurrection is the heart of the gospel message. And we've said this, I can't believe I had this in my notes, and then we've said this, I don't have any times today. If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty or in vain. This is a waste of time.
Like really, start gardening, start golfing, start doing other things. If Christ is not risen from the dead. But He is risen from the dead. And that is what we preach, a risen Savior.
With the incarnation, the resurrection is the greatest event in human history. History has been changed forever because of the resurrection. Lives have been changed forever because of the resurrection. And Father raised Christ, so we might have new life in Him.
We read that in 2 Corinthians 5, 15. So I want to share with you today three points in the conclusion on for Easter Sunday. The first one from this passage is that God has a message for us. It says, sons of Abraham's family and those among you who fear God, to us, a message of this salvation has been sent.
Now I like that verse because I'm not really a son of Abraham's family. I'm not Jewish. I don't have a Jewish heritage. Although I kind of live like that when I had Jewish friends in Cape Breton.
I used to go to their place all the time and tell people, you know, I grew up practically in a Jewish home when I was a teenager and young adult. But I had to say, are you Jewish? No, I'm not. So under the sons of Abraham's family, it doesn't help me at all.
And those among you who fear God. Ah, maybe I can be included in this. Abraham's family and those among you who fear God. God has spoken to us.
God has a message for you. God has spoken to mankind. First of all, He has spoken through creation. Psalm 19 verse 1, the heavens declare the glory of God.
So when you see a night sky, a sun rise, a sunset, a flower, your body. And I mean, sometimes you don't really think of your body as something that is going to say, wow, that's amazing. Glory to God. But I mean, look at the way your hand works.
Look at the way your eye works. Look at the way your body heals itself. You cut yourself. You heal.
You bump yourself. You bruise. It gets over and you're done. You're good.
You have knee joints that carry you around. Some are better than others. I get it. But still, God has given us a marvelous body.
The fact that you can see me this morning with your eyes. Not because it's me, but because you have eyes that can see. That's an amazing thing. God has spoken to us.
He's revealed himself through creation. The heavens, and I like that one. The heavens declare the glory of God. I live up the country.
I've got stars. You guys don't if you live in the city. But where I live, you look in the sky, it's filled with stars. And I cannot get out of my car ever and look up in the sky on that one night when it's clear in Nova Scotia and say, glory to God.
Look at those stars. It does. It reminds me every time I look to the sky and I see the stars to give glory to God. The heavens declare the glory of God.
And then he spoke to us generally and he spoke to us specifically. He sent prophets to proclaim his message. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 says from the NIV in the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. The prophets were those who spoke for God.
Sorry about the squeaks. This shows God's interest in his creation. God has spoken to his creation, his desire to communicate to them. But you see, here's the thing.
As human beings, we are trapped in a box. The box is space and time. We can't go outside of space and time. We're trying to look outside space.
But that's as far as you can get. They're not going to get there. We can't, time is always there. We cannot, we can go really, really fast and try to slow down.
But time is always going to be a factor while we're here on the side of eternity. We're confined by that. So the problem is, lots of people think, I'm going to get outside of this box and outside because outside the box we're in the natural, outside the box is the supernatural. And people think, I'm going to get out there into the supernatural from where I am in my box.
I think I can leave this and go to that. Well, every time that happens, a new religion seems to be born. Some kind of weird philosophy, some kind of, because man cannot escape space and time. You cannot, you cannot get out of it.
So what do you need? We need, we can't transcend our own existence. So someone outside the box must reach into the box and that's what God did. God sent a message to those of us confined to the box of space and time.
Those of us who were limited by the human experience, by nature. How did he do that? Well, first of all, I look at it, he walked with Adam in the garden and he spoke with him. He spoke to Moses in a burning bush.
He spoke in a lightning storm on Mount Sinai. He spoke in a still small voice to the prophet Elijah. And then he spoke his truth and his desires to his people through his prophets and those who had written the scriptures. So why did God speak?
I'll tell you why God speaks. Why God has a message for us? Because God loves us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God doesn't want to see us locked in a box of sin. He doesn't want to see us locked in a box of misery. He doesn't want to see us locked forever in this box of misery that's going to lead to perishing and destruction. God loves us.
He doesn't want people on the earth living with no purpose and hope. And he spoke to us, his people, sons of Abraham, and those among you, he spoke to us when we were on God leads us. What's the message he has? You see, sometimes we look at our lives and say, yeah, but I know what you're saying, but my life is such a mess.
Everything in my life is a mess. Well, God has a mess age for your mess. He has a mess age for your mess. What is this message?
Here it is in a single paragraph. You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. If you feel ungodly, that's good news to you. Christ died for you.
Yet very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, but for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die, but God is not wonderful, another but God. But God demonstrates his own love to us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's his message to you. That right there in the nutshell is God's message that we're speaking of in the other verses.
So not only did God send us a message, he has a messenger that he has sent to us. In verse 27, we read, for those who live in Jerusalem, their rulers recognized, recognizing neither him nor the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning him. So the message has gone from it to him. The message is him.
The message is a person. The message is not just a word to you. It's a person. Jesus Christ, that's his ultimate message to you.
All of the messages of the Old Testament, all of the prophets who spoke, God's truth, were pointing towards the messenger to the Jews called the Messiah. Messiah means someone specifically prepared and selected by God to save this world. And Jesus Christ is that Messiah. He was sent specifically to save you from your sins.
That's why he came. We look at how God spoke through the ages and how the truth of God unfolded. In Genesis, we get a little bit of what's this all about? What's the message?
And you get to Exodus and you look at some of the pictures that are given in Exodus and the deliverance of God's people. And then you read through the Psalms and you read through the prophets and you read through and more and more light comes on what's God's message. And then finally, Jesus Christ bursts on the scene and you say, ah, this is the message that has been spoken of in the past. Back to Hebrews, chapter 1.
I think I read at the bottom there. God who had various times and in various ways spoke in time past of the fathers by their prophets, by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom he made the world. That is the message, the messenger, Jesus Christ. So if I go back to that box illustration where we're all living in this box, time and space, find those walls, we can't get out of that box and connect with the supernatural.
God sent his son to enter that box. God sent his son to enter our experience, to enter time, to enter space. It's an amazing thing. I think it's pretty close to a tie with the resurrection for miraculous events.
God becoming a man to live on this earth. God sent his son. See, this is the difference. He came to give us his truth, to give us his life and point the way to God.
This is the difference between what we believe and what religion teaches. People say in all time. Can you answer this? You're religious.
I can answer it, but I'm not religious. Really? Yeah, you're religious. You go to church.
I go to church. But then there's an opportunity to tell them religion. Religion is when I decide I'm going to go to God on my terms. That's not the way it works.
Faith is when I go to God on his terms. Faith is when I say God, I am a sinner. You're right. What you've told me is right.
Faith is when I say yes, you've provided a way of salvation for me. I accept that. You're right. I agree with you, God.
That's faith. Religion is saying, okay, I'm going to work really, really hard. I'm not going to yell at my kids anymore. I'm going to clean up my life.
I'm going to go to church every week. I'm going to give money. I'm going to pray. I'm even going to read my Bible.
I'm going to do all that stuff. I'm going to do it every single day. I'm going to get up in the morning and thank God for my breakfast. I'm going to do it all through the whole day.
And maybe that will get me to heaven. That's religion. Sorry, but that's religion. But when you wake up and you say, but God raised him from the dead and I have life in him.
I am the ungodly one that is speaking of. Christ died for the ungodly. Yes, God. I am ungodly.
And Christ died for me. Thank you. He died for me. I'm going to get into my box to take me to you.
That's faith. That's what saves. Christianity is not a ritual or a creed or an institution. It's knowing Jesus Christ personally is the only one who can save you from sin.
The third point is, God has a message for us. God send a messenger to us. God knows the misery of the sin in us. And I get this from this passage.
And though they found no ground for putting him to death, they asked Pilate that he be an executor. I don't care what you say. That's wicked. Here's an innocent man.
Kill him. That's murderous. But you know what? My sin is behind all of that.
If I was there with that mob that day, I'd probably be shoddy and calling for his blood. They asked Pilate that he'd be executed. When they had carried out all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the cross and they laid him in a tomb. Now, if we closed our Bibles on that point, huh, isn't that miserable?
There's no hope. God sent his messenger to Messiah. He was innocent. He lived a perfect life, never sinned, never spoke a word of sin.
And the very people he was sent to executed him. They killed him. They condemned him as if he was a criminal. They didn't want to hear God's message.
They didn't want God's messenger. They didn't want the light of the truth that came from him. And the very hands that God had created nailed him to a cross. John 1, verse 9, says there was a light, there was delight, true light, which, coming into the world in light in every man.
He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him. You see, the first word he came to his own speaks of the Jewish people. He came to his own.
And those who were his own speaks of all of us did not receive him. But there is good news that comes later on this. Men love darkness, it says, rather than light, they crucified him. Crucifixion was the cruelest of punishments.
I can't even try to get my head into what it would be. But the Romans, nobody has ever come up with a more cruel punishment than Roman crucifixion. Often people would suffer for days on a Roman cross before they died and suffer greatly. The cruelest of punishment.
And that's what they took this innocent man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and they put him through that. They saw him as a criminal and not the Christ. You know, the world for a long, long time has seen Jesus Christ in the wrong way. I can't help but notice when I'm watching TV around this time of the year.
That comes up all the time. But even in the Scriptures, people saw Christ in the wrong light. In Matthew chapter 16, we read that people thought he was John the Baptist or Elijah. In Luke chapter 23, he was called a tax evader.
In John chapter 6, the prophet, our king. That was correct, actually. In John chapter 7, he was called a good man. He was a good man, but that's all he was to them.
Just a good man. In John chapter 10, they said he had a demon. Today, in the past couple of weeks, I noticed on CNN history, discovery, Smithsonian, Time magazine, the claims magazine, the headline story. Find out about the real Jesus.
Who was Jesus Christ? Mysteries of Jesus Christ. Secrets of Jesus Christ. Sticking secrets of Jesus Christ.
Are you kidding me? You know, once you go outside the Scriptures to start looking for answers on Jesus Christ, they're bogus. Usually. You may be able to come up with some cultural things that are perhaps true, but who's going to reveal some great mystery about Jesus Christ that we don't already know?
He is the Son of God. He is the God of heaven. He is the creator of all things. We know all of these things because it's all in the Scriptures.
And every year a man tries to come up with a new way to find out what he is and who he is all about. So that's where the world gets it wrong. But who is Jesus Christ to you? That's the ultimate question this morning.
Who is Jesus Christ to you? John chapter 1 verse 12. Here's the good news part of that John chapter 1 verse 11, where he came to his own received and not. It says in verse 12, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name.
Do you know him? Do you know him personally? Is he your savior? Is he your only hope?
I hope he is. Many of us have gone through difficult things, difficult times and struggles. It could be health, it could be jobs, issues, it could be home issues, it could be family things. But you know what?
When I realized from this verse, he gave me the right to become a child of God, believing in his name. I'm a child of Keith McDonald, who's long gone. That's no comfort to me anymore. That I'm his son.
I can't call my dad up and say, Dad, I'm going through a hard time at work. But you know what? I have a greater father. I have a greater father.
My son, Ben, who lives down around the corner here can call me up and say, Dad, I'm struggling with work and I can give him some advice, but you know what I always do to him? You need to pray about this. You need to talk to a greater father. Greater than me.
Way greater than me. Right now? Thanks for your endorsement. But do you know him?
Do you know him personally? Have you received him? Have you received him or have you rejected him? It's one of the other.
You're saying, well, wait a second now. I like him. I had a person that works at me. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
You know what? This one person. Saying you don't like them is saying you don't like Jesus Christ. And I said, well, wait a second now.
You're comparing somebody, this American person to Jesus Christ. I said, well, but you know I love him too. And I said, you do? I didn't know that.
What do you mean? Everybody loves him. I said, no, not everybody loves him. You see, Jesus himself said, if you're not for me, you're against me.
If you are not for me. If you are not one of mine, if you are not going to follow me with your whole heart. If you're not going to give your life to me, then you're against me. You've rejected me.
There are many people who have rejected Jesus Christ. I hope you haven't rejected him. You can receive him today. You can know him personally.
He died for you. He loves you. That's the message of today. I'm going to close with my last point here.
God works a miracle for us. I love this part. God works an incredible miracle for us and in spite of us. It says, after they put him on a cross, after they'd laid him in a tomb, after they'd done all those things, it says, but God raised him from the dead.
I'll say that again, and then you guys can say amen. Okay. After they put him on a cross, after they seal him in a tomb, and then I read verse 30, it says, but God raised him from the dead. Jesus was put on a cross, sealed dead in a tomb, a righteous man buried in the tomb by a righteous man took him and buried him in this tomb, Rome placed a seal on the tomb.
They placed guards 24-7, but God raised him up. Thank you, man. They put him in the tomb, but God got him out. They walked away.
They thought it was over, but God made sure that this was just the beginning. You know what? There's an empty cross and there's an empty tomb. Thank God.
He's never going back on that cross, and he's never going back on that tomb. He's raised. The little kids came up here and told you that this morning. I didn't even have to preach.
In Ephesians chapter 2, it says, but God being, sorry, I'll get back to this. They walked away, but God made sure it was just the beginning. Those two little words of hope, but God raised him from the dead. And those two little words can be part of your story this morning.
Those two little words can be the story of your life. I look at my own life. I wish I put it up here, but I didn't. My kids gave me a frame picture.
I'll cry if I start talking too much about it, but they gave me this frame picture of the star field from 1981 in Sydney. This is what the sky looked like on that December night in 1981, and underneath it is a verse. And I look at it and I think, that's my but God moment. It's captured right there for me to see.
I should get a, I won't do that to face the thing, but I can write a marker across the thing, but God. That's what it was. I was a student at Dalhousie, but God. I was a person who had respect for God, but God.
I was a person who was walking away from God, but God. God intersected my life at that moment. And I was saved. You can have a but God moment.
In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 5, we read this, but God, but God. There's those words again. Being rich in mercy and because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved. They put him in the tomb and they thought he's never coming out, but God raised him from the dead.
You know, apart from Christ, we're walking around this verse says like spiritual dead zombies. We're dead and we don't even know it, but God in his mercy and his love for us gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. And if you haven't received him today, it could be your day to receive him. It's quite simple.
I explain faith. Christ died that I might have life. Christ died that he could take away my sin. I surrender to him.
I see him. He's the only Savior. I'm a sinner. I'm lost.
I need to be saved and he will save me. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. A verse that was shared last week right at the bottom there. Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through glory of the Father, we too might walk.
In newness of life. You can have life today. If God can raise a dead corpse from the grave, he can change your life and save you today. The world says no, but God says yes.
The world says can't, but God says can. The world says defeat, but God says victory. The world says death, but God says life. The world says impossible, but God says certainly.
The world says hopeless, but God says hope. You know, I'm glad you're here this morning. And if you don't know him personally, if you don't know Jesus Christ and you can say I'm lost, all of these things in my life. And it doesn't matter how far down the road you've gone.
You can have a but God moment right now. You can turn your heart to him. I'm lost, but God you can save me. I know I'm a sinner, but I'm calling on the name of the Lord to be saved.
You can do that before we even sing the next song, before we even leave. Let's pray. Thank you Father for bringing us here this morning. I thank you for the great promise of the resurrection that is giving us the hope of a future life with God.
I thank you that you saved us from our sins through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Thank you in his name. Amen. We're going to stand together and sing one more song before we go.
You may if you could leave that. I'm going to.