603-2 A DATE WITH DESTINY-EASTER
APRIL 19, 1987
HENRY F. KULP
I want you to see that Jesus Christ had a date with destiny. And to understand what I mean, let us look at I Corinthians 15: 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1/ What happened to Jesus Christ was not happenstance. It didn’t just happen. All that happened to Him was planned from eternity past, and you and I can depend upon the truth of Jesus Christ at His death, burial and resurrection.
2/ Our message starts, of course, with the cross of Calvary.
3/ In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have the first resurrection in history. No one was ever resurrected before our Lord Jesus Christ, and no one else has been resurrected since. He is the only One Who has been resurrected from the dead. All the others who died and were brought back to life, had been resuscitated, and you must make a distinction between resuscitation and resurrection.
4/ It is one thing to come back from the dead and then to subsequently again die, but it is something else to come back from the dead in a resurrection body that will never die. Jesus Christ is the only person Who has been resurrected in the history of the human race. All other occasions where someone was brought back from the dead, they died again, but Jesus Christ came back from the dead, in the body that was not subject to death. It was a body incorruptible.
5/ John 11: 43, 44 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
There were two sisters, Mary and Martha, and they had a brother by the name of Lazarus, and he had died, and if you will look at verse 39, Jesus Christ said, “Take away the stone,” and Martha, the sister of him that was dead said unto Him, Lord by this time, he stinketh, for he has been dead four days.
Now in verse 43, He said Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a cloth, and Jesus said unto them, Loose him and let him go.He had been dead, and he was living, but he had to die again. He did not come forth from the grave in a resurrection body, in an immortal body.
6/ We could go to the others Jesus Christ raised from the dead, and they too, only had resuscitation, not resurrection.
7/ The people at Corinth, believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but they did not believe that anyone else would be resurrected and have a resurrected body, an immortal body. This was because of Plato. This doctrine did not start with Plato, but he was the great propagator of this doctrine. He said that the body was completely evil, and the Helenists culture took this up and carried it forth, and it was very prevalent at the church at Corinth. They said the body was completely corrupt, and these Greeks were not afraid to die, which was evil, the body, cross the River Styx, and go into Polaroma—they wanted to be rid of their body and to spend eternity without a body. Of course, this shows how foolish their culture was. Remember, the Greeks were the most educated people of their day, but how wrong they were—the body is not evil in itself. The body, according to the Bible is only a tent, a tabernacle, or a temple, a dwelling place. Of course, in the body is the old nature which is evil, but the body is not evil.
8/ These Corinthians had been taught by Paul, and after he left, Apollos came in—the silver-tongued orator, but he evidently had only about three messages at that time, and one of them was on the Rapture, and he talked about the glories of the Rapture, and the wonderful resurrection body the believer is going to get at that time. And these Corinthians who had been influenced by Plato and the Hellenistic culture absolutely blew up said, Don’t you know, we don’t get a resurrection body, only Jesus Christ. Don’t you know the body is evil?
9/ With all this in mind, let us look at verse 1 and Paul gives three aspects of the Gospel. THE GREEKS TAUGHT THAT THE BODY WAS A PRISON FOR THE SOUL, AND WHEN THE GREEK DIED, AND HE LEFT HIS BODY, HIS SOUL WAS OUT OF PRISON.
Proof of this is found in Acts 17: 31, 32 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
When Paul was in Athens and preached resurrection they mocked him, they blew up, they would hear not this truth.
10/ Verse 1 Paul said, I declare, and in the Greek that means TO MAKE KNOWN, TO COMMUNICATE. So he made known, he communicated unto them the Gospel. Unto you, is in DATIVE OF ADVANTAGE. It was to their advantage that he made known unto them the Gospel. The Gospel is good news. Notice, it is not bad news, it is good news. When you tell someone the Gospel, you should be enthusiastic, you should be happy. You don’t tell someone good news, then look like you had a persimmon just before you started talking.
11/ Then he said, which I have preached unto you, which ye have also received, and in which ye stand. The word, “Stand” is in PERFECT TENSE. You stand is in perfect tense, which means you stand in the past with the result you stand there forever. They accepted the Gospel. They believed it, so they had to believe in Jesus Christ’s resurrection.
12/ Now he says of this Gospel, by which, or through which also you are saved. So this Gospel saved them, but then he has the word, if. IT IS A FIRST-CLASSS CONDITION, AND THAT MEANS IF, AND IT’S TRUE. If you have kept that in your memory what I have preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. Then he says, unless, UNLESS IS A DEBATER’S FIRST-CLASS CONDITION. He said, let us assume something—not something that is true, but something that is false so we can refute it.
13/ Verse 3 Christ died for our sins. Let’s understand that phrase, We may get sort of elementary, but let’s do that. To die is a verb, and the subject of the sentence is Christ, so Christ died for our sins, that He might remove our sins. We are not saved by being sorry for our sins, or by giving up our sins, or by living a better life, but by the death of Jesus Christ. Christ does the work.
14/ What does it mean? Christ died for our sins? It means Christ was made sin for us, and then died and paid the price of sin.
15/ Notice, the second essential ingredient of the good news, He was buried, and then the third, He rose again. The first two verbs, died and was buried, are in the Greek Aorist tense, which tells us it is a once-for-all occurrence, that is, Christ died at a certain point of time, He was buried at a specific point of time. These are past historical events. Then the Greek verb for rose-again, however, is in the perfect tense. This tells us that the event happened in the past, and the results go on forever. The effect continues on into the present and the future. That is, Christ died, period, Christ was buried, period, Christ rose and is still living, and He will continue to live.
16/ We titled this message, “A Date with Destiny.” All of this, Christ dying, being buried and resurrected are all in the Scriptures. All of this was decided by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in eternity past, and when the time came, the exact time, all took place, and Jesus Christ died, He was buried and He resurrected from he grave.
17/ Please notice, what it says, here. He rose again the third day. That shows us how foolish to say that He died on Friday or to call Friday Good Friday. You see, people do not understand the good news.
18/ Luke 24: 25 - 27 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Here Jesus Christ was on the road to Emmaus. In the Scripture we have two disciples who loved Jesus. They had believed He was the Messiah, and they were perhaps in that throng that watched Him die. Now they were in deep perplexity, and they were wondering whether their hope was in vain. Had they been deceived? They were walking along the way from Jerusalem to Emmaus and I am told this is not a very long distance, and they were speaking of those things which had happened so recently. When suddenly a stranger drew near and interrupted their conversation.
Verse 17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? Then they told him about the Lord Jesus Christ, and how they had hoped He would be the One Who would redeem Israel.
Verse 21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
Then we come to Verse 25. Then He said unto them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to have entered into His glory?
He was telling them that prophets of the Old Testament had testified before hand of the sufferings of Christ, and then, of course, the glory of his resurrection. Yes, He had a date with destiny.
19/ Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
And it tells us how the Lord bruised Him and put Him to grief. In other words, He died and was made sin for us. Then notice the words, He shall prolong His days. The Messiah is not only seen in His death, but shown to be alive after His death.
20/ Isaiah 9: 6, 7 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
The Old Testament demands the resurrection the Messiah. These Scriptures cannot be fulfilled, cannot become a reality unless Jesus Christ is now living physically in a resurrection body, for He will rule and reign as the King of Kings and Lord of lords. He will sit upon the throne of His Father David, He will rule this world and set a government for God the Father.
21/ But yet, as I look at Christ and His destiny, I realize that because I believe in His death, burial and resurrection as payment for my sins, I too, have a destiny that is beyond description
I Corinthians 15: 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthly, that is Adam, we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly, Yes, we too, will have a resurrection body. We will not experience resuscitation, but resurrection, and we will be like the Lord Jesus Christ. We will have a resurrection body that is celestial.
Verse 40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
We will have a body that will be at home in the Heavens.
22/ I Corinthians 15: 51 - 55 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Here He show us a mystery, and this brings forth our destination, our destiny. We shall not all sleep, but we are guaranteed all to be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trip. Then notice, at the end of verse 52 we shall all be changed.
Then the 53rd verse For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
We will be immortal in the future. O, what a destiny, to have an immortal body, a never-dying body, and to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.
23/ To understand our destiny, we have to see something else about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 28: 1, 2 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
In resurrection, Jesus Christ did not have the stone rolled away at the time of His resurrection to let Him step out of the tomb. He went through the stone while it was still in place, but later, an angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. This was later after His resurrection. The stone was not rolled away to let Christ out, but to let humanity in to see the evidence of His resurrection. We know that He went through closed doors in His resurrection body.
24/ Just think what it will be like of us to have a resurrection body just like the Lord Jesus Christ. We will share in the destiny of the Lord Jesus Christ.
AMEN
603-2 A Date with Destiny - Easter / April 19, 1987
