Matthew 28:11-15 KJV
11 Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.
12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
14 And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

The disciples report what occurred despite what some will and will not believe. I think one of the greatest mysteries of the resurrection comes with the unbelief of those that should of believed. One would think that if two resurrection occurred in the presents of religious leaders it would be enough to convince them of the truth, but in reality it did something else the direct opposite. The miracles that we see today usually do not include the raising of the dead with out CPR perform by doctors or medically train person, or someone that learned it through a first aid course. Yet the problem arises when Jesus was dead three days and Lazarus four days. Most do not live again in our world today after a few minutes and definitely less then a hour. The occasional, unthaw body to live again takes the cake, because of shallow breathing at a very low temptature, kept the body alive.

It easier for people to believe a lie that no resurrection or nothing occurred to keep the devil's persecution from occurring. To keep the peace with legal law then to take a stand and say the resurrection happen and cause contraversy. Religious leaders and elders paid local soldiers money to say he did not rise to the governors and leaders of Roman world and it became the biggest lie ever told and the lie continues even today.

You can accept the story the disciples tells or you can believe Jesus body was stolen, but to believe it was stolen you might as well walk out of the church doors and say I am not returning. It takes a certain amount of faith in God and in Christ to remain on a pew. It takes a certain amount of faith to believe the church still believes in miracles and so forth too. Every pastor that walks into a church never knows if the crowd in the church receives God's word as infallible or whether they hush up certain parts and use the other parts only as a guide to healthy living. If a church is saying they do not preach about Jesus, his cross and his resurrection, why is their doors open? Let them be closed. Then they be shut the doors to legalism beyond governmental laws. Let them not use scripture to confuse the world.

Without the resurrection Adam's law still is applied, what is Adam's law, the law that came about with the first sin. The punishment for sin is death, that means their is no hope for eternity? No that is another lie, for was not Moses not in the transfiguration with Elijah. That is were some say that happened after the resurrection and not before. Some believe there is a puragatory a time of punishment for sin, once paid one is then heaven ward by faith. More confusion about afterlife before Christ death and resurrection.

Righteousness by faith, Abraham believed God and it was credit to him, Noah was a justified by faith. If we are then judged by faith, who truly believe and who does not. Did Noah family believe him or followed his leadership because he was the man of his house. Lot is a good example of this theory, he believed in God but his wife had not enough faith, that she turn back for a look see/evidence of why not turn around and sin, instead obey God and look to Jesus/word in this case. Lot's daughter lacked of faith/at least strength of faith to wait for man to marry. If so many unbelieved and believed why then is resurrection so important, if like David he believed he would dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Yet some accepted a puragotory or a place like hell until correction came, or hell with a fiery pit or hell only buried in the ground and no longer living. Most can accept concept of no longer alive in the ground, until one reads Ezekiel and God asked can these bones live? All these analogies before the cross and resurrection. If there was resurrection for the Old Testament why is one needed in the New Testament. If life after death existed what changed from Old to New Testament?

For the believer there has always been life after death, for the non believer life after death meant hell, lake of fire, a place of torment, that why Christ set the captives free, no longer punished for sin. Yet we face the consequence today for unbelief? What changed. Our ability to be excused from unbelief, and sin in general. If Christ be the firstfruit to rising from the dead. The first fruit of God's love for man, no longer held by the corruption of sin against man? No by Adam all would die and unto Christ all would be made alive? This is the mystery I talk about the word of God. By the word we acknowledge the reality of God and his power, yet sin caused all man to fall short of the glory of God. To fall from his grace. Without repentance there was no hope. With sacrifice no forgiveness, without the religious law to correct no knowledge of the original sin. The word of God corrected, Enoch(translated into heaven), Noah, Abraham, Moses and all the prophets. All these listed representing men of faith. That does not include anyone not a leader in the world with faith. It represents people of faith. Why then did Christ had to die and resurrect if the law fullfilled or justified faith. What the law does not do is produce faith, it produced legalism. Not necessarily everyone fill in the category, but those it did, had not faith of God's provision for sin. Abraham learned about God's provision for sin when he took his son to the altar, and God provided a ram. Us buying a sacrifice or bringing a sacrifice means we did something for our atonement which was impossible to please God with.

Forgiveness from God is so important, but the fact that man must confess sin to God in order for God to forgive is a reality. God provided a sacrifice through his Son(the word of God in the flesh). Everytime faith and confession saved a person from death, it only because God received repentance and the turning away from sin, along with faith. Man still need the sacrificial law in society to pay for criminal acts against humanity. The yearly sacrifices took care of those who cared for the law. The taking of constituionary law our taxes take care of. We must remember Jews were under a legal law plus the religious law being combined. The confusion of two laws within a person, one of faith and the legal system.

Christ death did several things, it provide the one time sacrifice for sin, giving man a new start with faith without the sacrificial law being applied after the sacrifice of Christ. It also provided a covering for sin against who mankind, verses God. The saying it better to obey God then man despite the price of man's law, provides the idea of the resurrection. God did not leave is Son in hell for the crime he convicted of involving humanity. Paul talks about sin as being things he knows he should not do, but he struggles with because of his humanity. Yet he thanks God for Christ Jesus by believing he walk faith by the Spirit of God, into full obedience to Christ. The same opportunity we have to believe and walk by faith in Christ.

What is Christ teaching by his own resurrection, God's correction is not man's correction. Faith is not the law of man. Christ also showed with the law of man he still had to suffer for it. Yet the law of faith was always there and could be applied to be able to have life eternal. Judas lost his faith if he ever had it. He broke not the law of the government that he sought forgiveness from. God's law originally said for sin we face death. Enoch did not face death why because he was righteous by faith. Yet how many believers have died. How many captive by the grave. That way the resurrection of the dead happened to prove that God's word did not leave the righteous forsaken. What need for repentance if no resurrection. What need of God in our life if no resurrection? Resurrection proves to man would be punished for sin by man's laws but by faith live and rise again. If Christ be greater then man before his death, then God's word though killed by man, would still live and still continue on with or without man's faith. Each generation would have to receive Christ to have eternal life, to have the hope of heaven. Christ represent the word in physical form. (John 1:1-14). Without the resurrection has evidence what hope is there.

That God's word does not change. Jesus was obedient to God even in death. Meaning even Daniel obeyed God even to potential of death, but he seen not the grave until his death. No he seen a type of grave in the lion pit and came out alive to tell it. Jesus faced death and went through death to live again and to set the captives free. God set us free when we choose him, over the the lesser power called man, that man surrender to long ago.

Who is Jesus teaching through the cross the Jews? or the world? Perhaps both with the religious leaders caught by legalism and not faith necessarily. If trouble in a small town reaches big ears, trust me town not happy. Why because a disturbance is happening they would not want upper government to know about, especially if they were some what involved. What then the prophecy of High Priest Caiaphas that one man had to die for a nation was going to come to pass, by the force of their own design, no the force of God in the case of Christ. Though the temple of God was obeying the Roman leaders it did not make God a less power. Yet out of fear the Jews leaders even with the resurrection feared the lesser power. Because the lesser power had the authority over man. The lesser power not being necessarily godly. We talk about demons, but is the demon a person in power over someone. The girl healed of demon possession by Paul and Silas got beaten for it and then went to court, why because it took money from the man that own the girl. Same problem Egypt had with letting the people go, it took money from them, work they did not want to have to do themselves and so on. It the slave owner mentality that the slave should make them a living and not be freed. Christ came to set us free from the law of sin, not necessarily the government, but by doing so he also restablished the law of faith without burnt offerings. That you can believe without a church, without a building, without government, without others telling you to believe. That the law of faith is not bound by a building but is a free choice to all that believe. We join together in groups and unity to help each other do two things spread the gospel of faith, and to help our neighbors far and near.

Yet without a church faith is still possible. With God all things are possible with faith. Yet we still need the lesser law to get along with all people in all societies. Standards help with disease control, infringe on others rights, and helps with living and work. Faith in God trumps all governments. Yet God allows man's suffering because of man's laws. Christ suffered at the hand of man's law by the will of God. No God allowed that suffering because man desire for the lesser government. Woman chose the other government when she obeyed the serpent. Adam chose the lesser government when he took the fruit from Eve. Husbands you obey your wife, not out of fear hopefully, but because you respect her decision as long as it not forbidden fruit by God. Woman obey their husband because it right in the eyes of God. Yet God gave man free choice in the world in which we live and did not go about destroying until evil reached the heighth of heaven.

Hard thought but we live with God's laws for man and woman. We live for truth by God's correction for our sin. We live in repentance to sin, because of man's law or God's law. The what would Jesus do in every situation of our life comes to question. Jews were in fear of the government and yet sought the government to defend their faith that Jesus seem to be stealing from them along with the people. That was never God's intent but it was part of the blindness God placed on the Jewish nation, to bring lost souls to him. Yet it easier to be blind to legalism, and judicial law of man verse God's lighter yoke of faith that he places on man to just believe in Jesus the word of God the Son of God and the Savior to the world.

Where are you this morning, are you yoked by the govenment and church hierachy to the point you wonder if your faith even exist, then take time to receive Christ as Savior that you righteous through faith in Christ because God's word says so. That upon turning from sin you are a child of God by grace because you receive God's salvation plan through Christ our righteousness. Don't leave your government or your church but grab hold of your faith being more powerful then the state you are in. Sometimes God wants to use you where you are, but remember obey the Spirit of God. Follow God and his Son's leadership in your life first and foremost. If God says no, there could be consequences in our world, but not yours.

Dear Heavenly Father, help us to always obey you, to believe the possibly of your word arising once more in godless nations around the world, and in place that has not seen your light for a time, that your word and Son will rise there to bring people to repentance and to follow after you. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: 1 Corinthians 15:12-58 KJV
12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 1
5 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
32 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.
33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
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.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 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.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 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.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.