Could we be consumed with the Truth? This cosmic world challenges us. But we have our joy. This Jesus is our God. A day came and He was here earth. Be glad. Rejoice in His salvation. Mary Magdalene came tearful and sad to the tomb. And then her God, our God, was there alive. He showed up. (Isaiah 25:9; John 20)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12428
7:00 PM on 12/21/2022

P. Schaller –

Okay. Turn to John 20 just for an introductory thought. Where have you laid him? This is Mary in John.
Remember that she said that when she came to the empty tomb. vs. 1-2. Now she had been
with Jesus and heard him say he would be raised on the third day. I’d like to turn to Mark 8. I’ve
got three times in these three chapters. So, Mark 8:31. I want to share just a meditation for you
here.

I hear something going on behind me. Are there angels back there? What? Do you hear it too?
Okay. Mark 8:31.Did he say that? After three days he would rise again? That’s Mark. 8:31. Now,
turn to Mark 9:9. Did he say that he would be raised from the dead? Did he say he would be
raised? This is important. Did he say that he would be raised from the dead? Okay. Look at
Mark 10 if you don’t believe me. vs. 33-34. Did he say that? On the third day he would rise
again. No question. Did other people in Jerusalem hear that he said that on the third day he
would rise? Did they?

Turn to Matthew 26. Is it 26? I can tell when we get there. Wait a minute. Matthew 27:62, did he say it?
Yes, he did. Did he tell his disciples? Yes, he did. Did even the people, the Pharisees and
scribes heard it. They knew he taught that on the third day he would rise from the dead.
Now go to Mary here in John 20. She went to the sepulcre on what day? On the third day she
went to the sepulcre. Then she runs, vs. 2. Where did they lay him? He’s dead. That’s how she
understood it. Why didn’t she believe that he would be raised from the dead on the third day?
And why didn’t she come to the sepulcre, see it’s empty and say, he is risen? But instead, where
have they laid the body. That’s what she said.

So there is a meditation for us and it is even when God tells us something, we may not believe
it. Even when we understand, we may not fully get ahold of it in our hearts. That’s the lesson.
This is Christmas. God told us, God ministered to us and he wants us to understand what he
has said. I kind of think if Mary had had a preacher, a pastor; if she had somebody say when
you go to the tomb three days from now, remember what he said. The tomb will be empty. He
will be gone. Remember that Mary. Say it back to me. He will be gone. Remember that, Mary.
Don’t you know that? That’s what he said. And when you go to the tomb and the tomb is empty,
you are to rejoice in the fact that he has been raised from the dead.

Now, isn’t that an interesting thought? Why didn’t she believe what was told? Why didn’t she
embrace it? Well, we know our nature. We have a sin nature. We know that we are sometimes
stubborn in unbelief. We know that we gravitate to the ground and sometimes the things that
God says to us about prayer or about faith or about the Body of Christ may not sink in.
I say this not to condemn us, but just to realize there are times in your life when you need to
shake the dust off and get sharp and embrace it and live by faith with it and mix faith with it and
believe it. And believe it and embrace it in my mind and in my heart. Is that good? That’s a good
message I think, isn’t it?

Okay. What I want you to do is kind of make little groups of five or ten people, and one of you
talk and the others listen and you joke a little bit. Love a little bit. Be strong a little bit. Preach a
little bit. Share a little bit. Pray a little bit. Encourage each other. I wonder what is going to
happen right now? Okay. Go ahead.

Okay. Here’s a couple questions. There’s the visible world and then the invisible world. Do we
believe it? Christ said on the third day he would rise from the dead. Do we believe it? When
Christ says I’m coming again, coming again, do we believe it? Do we believe it? When he gave
us his Word and reveals to us things from the Holy Spirit, do we embrace it? Do we have a
place in our heart?

Remember when Christ came the first time, there was no room in the inn. Do you remember?
But I think there wasn’t any room for him anywhere. In a political discussion. Use our world
today. Is there room for him in the NFL? Huh? Or in big companies? Is there room for him in the
chats and the social media and the finance and the New York Stock Exchange? Is there room
for him in the classroom, in the university? Is there room for him? There isn’t. The world doesn’t
want him. But he told us this but we want him. We found him. Lo, this is your God in Isaiah 25:9.
It’s beautiful. Let’s turn there actually. Let’s look at that.

Is it Isaiah 25:9? This is our sermon card text. Oh, God is good to us, huh? I wanted to encourage
you tonight. I really – to praise God. Praise God. The Spirit of God, huh? Isaiah 25:9 is on your
sermon card which we saw once and tucked it away some where. vs. 9. What day? It will be
said in that day. Let’s make a point. I think we’ll just do the message. It will be said in that day. I
wonder what day it is that he’s talking about? Which day? Look at vs. 9. Lo, this is our God. #3.
We have waited for him. And he will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. We will
be glad and rejoice.

I think this is the secret that we have in our hearts is our joy, our gladness. It’s what the pagan
world does not have. We have our joy. We waited for him and lo, this is our God. And it will be
said in that day. In that day. I don’t really know – I’m only taking the verse and thinking with you
about it. I know that Spurgeon preached a message on that, but I went to look for it and I didn’t
find it. I don’t need it. I’m sure he had something to say about it, but for what we want to say
tonight, this has happened to us. It is said that in that day, lo, this is our God.

That happened to the Magi. On that day they said, lo, this is our God. It happened surely to
Mary and Joseph. Lo, this is our God. We have waited for him and we have joy. We have waited
for him. In Mark. 15 when the Roman centurion put his spear up into the side, wasn’t he the one
when he said, truly, this is the Son of God. And that Roman centurion on that day could say, lo,
this is our God. A pagan. When the wise men came from far, I like to think about people that are
far away from the church or far away from God. Far away. I think of how God draws people in
king’s palaces. And they are drawn and they could say when they see him, this is our God.
Maybe when Mary Magdalene said – she didn’t have faith. It didn’t work in that moment. She
turns around. Where have you laid him? Where is the body? And then she meets Jesus and she
could say, lo, this is our God. This is our God. We have waited for him and this is our joy in our
rejoicing.

That’s like us. Our hope and prayer is all the time that people would find him. I read a paragraph from an
atheist. I want to read it to you because it kind of stimulates us. This atheist said, “I want atheism to be true and I am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and naturally hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope that there is no God. I don’t want there to be a God. I don’t want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority
problem is not a rare condition. I am curious whether there is anyone who is genuinely
indifferent as to whether there is a God.” He’s saying there’s a universal belief in God but I don’t
want that.

Why do I bring that up? Because this verse, this Isaiah 25:9, is saying on that day, on that day,
when somehow the Holy Spirit is convincing you or leading you. On that day, when you open
your heart. On that day when you say, maybe it is true. Who is he? Can I love him? Does he
love me? I actually think I could add to this that I actually think people are afraid of God. They
also are afraid of religion. They are afraid of the Bible. They are afraid of people like you and
me.

But actually, we’re all the same. Actually, we’re all sinners and we’re all lost. And our God has
made every effort to show himself to us and to say I love you. I don’t condemn you. Like Jesus
said, I didn’t come to condemn. I came to save. I am the baby in Bethlehem. I am the lamb on the cross that takes away the sins of the world. I am the one that meets Mary Magdalene and
tells her who I am. And in every one of these cases, when they find they say, lo, this is our God.
It consumes your heart. You say, this is our God. You love him. He gets your focus and your
heart and you say, I found him. I found him. Lo, this is our God. This is the Almighty God, the
Great God, the holy God, the loving God, the compassionate God, the forgiving God, the
gracious God, the God of all grace.

And I do feel like so many times we condemn ourselves and we are afraid and also somehow
are dumb and blind. Even when he said I’ll be raised on the third day and on the third day she’s
there and not believing it.

So, I think I just want to say it in a couple more minutes. Just say wouldn’t it be amazing if we
could really see more clearly? Wouldn’t it be amazing that we would just be consumed with this
amazing Spirit of truth? There would be nothing in you that would contest it. You would just
embrace it and I let his praise be continually out of my mouth. When he delivers you from like
sexual sins, bad thinking, negative, downward kind of gravitation and how much that can
consume us. I can be Spirit filled for a while and then immediately gravitate by my negative
thoughts and words and go back to not believing though I believe. But we believe.

We need a pastor-teacher. God gave that gift. We need it. That person will take it and he can’t
do it but the Holy Spirit uses him to take this and say it and say we believe this. The tomb will be
empty on the third day. He said so. And Mary when you go there, it will be so. He’s coming
again. He really is. Until then, we are in a cosmic world of demonic and fleshly warfare that
challenges our faith many times, all the time.

But Paul said, you can fight the fight. You can stir up yourself, Timothy. You can embrace it. You
can believe it. Come on! You can embrace it. You can believe it and it will comfort you and teach
you and guide you and lead you and you come back saying, wow! It does work. It is real.

Fourth point: they are glad and rejoice because lo, this is their God. Amazing, isn’t it. Sometimes
my son, Justin, and I a couple years ago we were talking and I told him, I said I sometimes go
for a walk reading my Bible just down the street. It’s kind of hard to do it, walk and read at the
same time and read it out loud. But he told me later he was doing it also. Just reading the Bible
out loud. You can do it in your bedroom. You can do it just as a habit. Read the Bible slowly or
however you want to but read it outloud and something it says will get your spirit, your heart.
You say I don’t believe that and Jesus says believe it. And you say I don’t believe that. Jesus,
you know I don’t believe that but Jesus says read it again.

Read it out loud. Read it to yourself. I’m telling you it’s true. Embrace it. Believe it. This is the way it is. You are free. You are free. You are free. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Lo, this is our God.
We have waited for him and he showed up. And he showed up in your meditation. He showed
up in your walk down the street. He showed up in your Bible study. He showed up in the pulpit
ministry. He showed up in a foreign country. He showed up in a bathroom somewhere. He
showed up in a cellar, in a library. God showed up. Lo, this is our God. He has not left us but he
is with us and he’s in your life.

And that’s the greatest thing you have going on in your life. The greatest thing you have in your
life is God, the living God. Wow! It will be said in that day. And again, I don’t know what that
means. It will be said in that day, lo, this is your God. Maybe at the bema seat, on that day it will
be said, lo, this is your God. And what he has done in your heart and your mind that is eternal.
We have waited on him.

In a way, all of us are waiting on God tonight. We haven’t seen God yet. In a way, we are all
waiting on him, but he will not leave us ashamed because of point #4. We will be glad and
rejoice. Lo, this is our God. Isn’t that a song? Lo, this is our God. Yeah. Boy, that’s great. Amen.
Alright. So pray with me, please. (Prayer).

Would you stand with me. We’re going to do a halleluiah breakdown for a minute. Okay. Let’s
go. Here we go. Praise the Lord. I don’t know what it means to you but you gotta praise the Lord
a lot. Praise the Lord! I believe it. That kind of thing. I believe what Jesus said. Tell your
neighbor. I believe what Jesus said and I praise the Lord and thank him for everything he’s
given me. Lo, this is our God. Halleluiah! Halleluiah! This is our God. Hey, amen. Halleluiah.
Yes, Yes. It’s good. Isn’t it good? It’s good. God is good to us, isn’t he? God is good. He helped
us. Yes.

Hey, any of you going to die? Any of you going to die? Why aren’t you going to die? What?
What? Why aren’t we going to die. Are we going to die? No, we are going to leave our body and
fly away. Who is going to come and get us? Angels are coming. They are going to meet Dave
Bellarose at breakfast with Jesus the other day. Yes, he did. Are we going to die? No.
Are we going to get hurt? Probably. Yeah. Is there going to be pain? Probably. What do we think
about that? Our light affliction is only for a moment. And we get a greater degree of glory. The
troubles that we have in this present time are not worthy to be compared with what is coming.
Come on! Shake it off. How about it? Jesus is real.

Hey, wait a minute. What about Samson? Remember he was bound up and everything and it
says he shook himself like at other times but it didn’t work cause he got a hair cut. His hair cut
violated a Nazarite vow. He lost his holiness. He lost his commitment. He lost his focus. He got
a haircut. Turn to your neighbor and just say, hey. Hey. You heard him. You heard what the
pastor said. Hey! Hey! Take care. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hey! Hey! Hey!

Halleluiah! Halleluiah! Halleluiah! Kind of sometimes get into it. Say, halleluiah! Halleluiah!
Halleluiah! Sometimes get into it and say it a thousand times by yourself and get stirred up in
your heart and spirit and worship Almighty God. Hey, anybody have any secret sin in their life
here? Do you have any secret sin? It says Psalm 90 my secret sin is in the light of his
countenance. He sees it. His eyes are everywhere and he knows my secret sin.

Listen. When I was 17 years old, I wanted to play a joke on my dad, and I hid behind the curtain
in the livingroom. But my feet were this long! And there’s a big bump there. I was 17 years old.
But I thought it would work the same when I was two. When I was two years old and I hid from
my dad it was a joke. But when you’re 17 and you’re hiding from your dad, it’s not a joke.
And if you are an adult here tonight and you’re hiding from God, it’s not a joke. He sees your big
feet! He sees where you are. He knows who you are and he says, come on. Come unto me.
Learn of me. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Walk with me. When you walk with me, –
Enoch walked with God and he was not. Huh? Boy, halleluiah.

Okay. Let’s see. Let’s go. Let’s finish. Let’s see. Jesus. Go ahead. Say Jesus’ name a few times.
Jesus, I am passive. Jesus, I am asleep. Jesus, I am negative. Jesus, I don’t care anymore.
Jesus, who are you? Lo, in that day it shall be said, lo, this is our God. We have waited for him
and he is our gladness and our joy. And he delivered me from ten thousand on the right and a
thousand on the left. And he kept me from covid. Even though I got it a couple times, I beat it. I
beat it. And spread it around. Spread that goodness all over the place.

And we beat it. Cause Dan Sergione is here with us tonight and John Nielson is with us tonight.
Those are two witnesses that God hears our prayer and answers our prayer cause our God – lo,
this is our God. Huh? Isn’t that beautiful? I think you got to be stirred up about God, believe in
God and on the third day when you go to the tomb and it’s empty, say, he is risen! He is risen
like he said. I haven’t seen him yet but he said it and it is like he said.

Amen. Okay. So, the service is over. God bless you. Be on your way. We’ll be in the cafe. We’ll
hang around here for a couple hours. You’ll find security here in the early morning hours. Go on your way. God bless you. Hey! Jesus is real and I’m just so thankful for it all and all his
goodness to us. Wow!

Let’s praise God a lot in these days, Amen! In your secret prayer closet, in your everyday life,
say, Jesus’s name and praise God and worship God. Do not be a stale, empty, boring Christian.
When you have a conversation, have Jesus. There’s room for him in the inn. And when you
have a conversation in the cafeteria somewhere at Johns Hopkins or the university or
somewhere, say you know what folks? At this table, there’s room for Jesus at this table. At this
cafeteria table, there’s room for Jesus. In this heart, there’s room for Jesus. In this conversation,
there’s room for Jesus. There’s room for Jesus in this church. There’s room for Jesus in this
country. There’s room for Jesus on this bus, on this train, in this inn, in this hotel, in this lobby.
There’s room for Jesus. That’s an amazing thing. Amen. Lo, this is our God. That’s it. Amen.
God bless you. Go in Jesus’ name. Amen.