Death Couldn’t Hold Him

Death Couldn’t Hold Him 2022 04 17

Acts 2:22 – 28 

We live in a world that is filled with death. People around us die, including loved ones. We have been told of millions dying around the world from the pandemic. Heart attacks, cancer, and other common illnesses take many, often without warning, every day. People going about their lives, working, going to school, playing in playgrounds, falling in love, marrying, and raising families are dying without warning in accidents, violent events, and wars they have no control over. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment:” Hebrews 9:27 It all sounds pretty hopeless, doesn’t it? But there is that little word, “as,” in Hebrews 9:27. That’s because there is hope. Hebrews 9:28 continues, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Our Creator, our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, paid the full price for us, opening the doors of heaven to all who will come.

Acts 2:22 – 28

This passage we have just read is part of the great sermon Peter preached, when more than 3,000 people were saved.

  1. He said it was not possible for death to hold Jesus!
    • All the prophets of old proclaimed that the Messiah, who is Jesus Christ, could not be held by death. Death just couldn’t hold Him!
  2. We’re going to look back at some the statements made by 3 men of God from the Old Testament, Job, David, and Isaiah, to see what they prophesied and how trustworthy God’s word is.
  3. Then we will look at the witness and testimony of some reliable witnesses from the New Testament – Peter and the Apostles.

I. The Testimony of Job

  1. Job 19:25 – 27
    • In the midst of his agony, even in when it was so bad that he wanted to die, Job declared with certainty that even if he did die, he would be raised bodily from the dead to see his Saviour whom he knew would stand on the earth at the last day.
    • Job clearly saw that the Saviour, though Satan would strike at His heel (Genesis 3:15), would not be brought down where He could not save, but that He would stand as his redeemer on the earth on the last day.

 

II. The Testimony of David

  1. Psalm 16:8 – 11
    • David set his heart on the things of heaven, trusting God, because he knew that God would raise him from the dead.
    • His confidence was that his own soul would not be left in the grave, because God would raise the Saviour, the Messiah, the Holy One from the grave.
    • David knew by divine revelation that the Messiah would die for him, but also that He would rise from the dead in such a short time that His flesh would literally not rot (suffer corruption.)
    • This term that David used in his testimony, “the Holy One,” was the same title used of Jesus in the New Testament in Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34, and Acts 3:14.

 

III.  The Testimony of Isaiah

  1. Isaiah 53:6 – 12
    • The question asked by Isaiah, who was speaking prophetically of future events was, “Even though He was taken and killed, who can say how great the numbers of His children will be?” In other words, His death would not be the end, but a beginning.  He must rise.
    • Though He died and was buried, He shall see the travail (or very difficult work) of His suffering soul and shall be satisfied, because He will save many, because He will carry their sins in His own body and justify them by His death.
    • God said He will give Him a great portion, because what He did in His death justifies many. Yet in this it is clear the grave could not hold Him, for God gives what He gives to the One who is alive, not to the dead.

 

IV. The Testimony of Peter and the Apostles

  1. Acts 2:32 – 36
    • Peter and the apostles were eyewitnesses of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
    • Peter said, “this Jesus Christ hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses.” It is an historic, witnessed fact that Jesus Christ was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead.
    • Peter said that the very same Jesus who was crucified is both Lord and Christ, awesome in power and ability to deliver or save. The declaration of Peter is that Jesus Christ is very much risen from the dead because death could not hold Him, and not only is He risen from the dead, but He is risen with great majesty and power. 
  1. 1 Corinthians 15:3 – 8
    • This passage speaks with amazing clarity and unquestionable authority of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
      • Jesus died, an historic and well-documented fact.
      • Jesus was buried, also an historic and well-documented fact
      • Jesus rose from the dead, which is again, an historic and well-documented fact. This fact is more than recorded by a handful of first century writers of the gospels and others. Jesus Christ was seen alive by hundreds and hundreds of people over a 40-day period, including more than 500 at once in one place!

 

CONCLUSION:

  1. Death could not hold Jesus Christ in the grave, because God said it could not. Just as God said to the sea and it obeyed, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed,” Job 38:11, so He said that Jesus Christ the Messiah would rise from the dead, and so He DID rise from the dead.  God does what He says He will do, and we have the testimonies and witness of these people who have gone before us to prove it.  Jesus DID rise from the dead; It was not possible that death could hold Him!  Death couldn’t hold him, because God said He would rise from the dead, and God’s word is sure.  Neither can death hold you when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, because God says, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  1Thessalonians 4:16,17. Death couldn’t hold Him.  Neither can it hold you.  Trust Him!