Can’t keep a “God” man down!
Mark 16:1-8
We have all have heard the saying; “You can’t keep a good man down”. We will talk about that in a little bit. But what we start off with talking about the day we all are celebrating today. So let’s start with the first man that you can’t keep down…
You can’t keep a “God” man down!
Now this is somewhat hard for the human mind to comprehend this…but God, came to the earth in the form of a man. He was God, but gave up the power and the pleasure of being God, but He was also very much a man. He got hungry. He got tired. He had feelings. He was God in the form of the man, God man. When He was arrested falsely and was scourged, which means that He was beaten within an inch of His life, He felt that. When He was stuck on His face when He was blind folded and the soldiers stuck Him and told Him to prophesy to us who struck you, He felt every blow. When they place the crown of thorns or His head, and as they pressed it down, it was real blood that trickled down His face. When they drove the nails in His hands and in His feet, He felt every blow of that hammer. He was just as human as you and I. But out His love and obedience, He being a man gave His life for you and me.
Philippians 2:5-8 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
The death of the cross was the cruelest punishment known to man. Not just any death, not a lethal injection, not facing the electric chair, a hanging, but not one that was done by placing a noose around His neck, but by being nailed to a cross and hanging there till He literally suffocated by not having the strength to pull His self up to get His next breath. It was a cruelest of all deaths.
But when He cried out, “It is finished”, it did not mean He was done. Stick a fork in Him or in this case, stick a spear. You can’t keep a “God” man down.
Then when they place His body in the tomb, and then they placed a large stone to seal that tomb, and they placed guards outside the tomb, to prevent anyone from coming and taking the body. But they didn’t understand that you can’t keep a “God” man down.
When Joseph took the body of Jesus and placed it in His own tomb, he thought that is was a permanent resting place, but Jesus knew it was a loaner, a three-day loaner to be exact. You can’t keep a “God” man down.
The huge stone that was to seal the tomb would have defiantly been a deterrent. The women who went to the tomb talked about that. “Who will roll the stone from the door of the tomb for us?”
These women came with spices to anoint the body of Christ; they were not expecting Him to do what He had many times told them He would do. On the third day that He would rise, but evidently they didn’t believe Him.
The soldiers who were there, they were there to keep others out, not keep Him in. But you see, You CAN’T KEEP A GOD MAN Down!
I do not serve a God who is dead. I serve a risen Savior. And as the song says, “I know that He is living, no matter what men may say” I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer… and just the time I need Him, He’s always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way…You ask me how I know He lives… He lives within my heart.”
Reminds me of Jesus’ nickname, Andy. Because the bible says, Andy walks with me; Andy talks with me.
You can’t keep a God man down. And because He lives, I can face tomorrow. And because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know who hold the future, then life is worth the living, just because He lives.
Praise God that you can’t keep a God man down. Then thank God that…
You can’t keep a godly man down
Peter, one of my favorite disciples, was a godly man. From the time that Peter had dropped his nets and became a fisher of men instead of a fisherman, he was gung ho for Christ. When Jesus announced that one of the 12 would betray Him, Peter said, No way Hoza, would it ever be him.
Matthew 26:35 Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!"
It was Peter when the mob came to arrest Christ in the garden who drew out his sword and was ready to take them all on. But his swordsmanship resulted in just cutting off an ear of one of the Chief Priest servants. Peter was a godly man. Even Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Peter was a godly man, but he got down. As Jesus predicted, not once, not twice, but three times, he denied that he had anything to do with Christ.
Mark 14:71-72 Then he began to curse and swear, "I do not know this Man of whom you speak!" A second time the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, "Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times." And when he thought about it, he wept.
He wept. He was down. But he was not out. The most miserable person that I know is one who has experienced a personal relationship with Christ and then to have that relationship severed.
If you are honest with yourself, and are a Christian, the happiest times in your life are the times when you had the right relationship with Christ.
But you can’t keep a godly man down.
We find Peter after the crucifixion, after appearing to the tomb gun ho, being the first disciple to get there, and after Jesus had shown Himself to him three times, going back to his old ways. He went back to fishing.
John 21:3 Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We are going with you also." They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.
Have you ever been fishing and not caught anything? The only thing that I can think that would be worse is going a pay lake and then after paying for you to fish and still catch nothing. Peter was down. Not only did he fail by denying Christ, but also now he was having no luck at his first occupation.
Then as the story goes on, Jesus appears and then tells them to cast their net on the other side. Now being a fisherman myself, I hate it when someone (who is not even fishing) comes and tells me how to fish. But these guys thought what the heck, so they tried and cast on the other side of the boat. And when they went to draw in their nets, they were so full (150 fish) that they had to drag the fish in to the land.
My point is when we try to do things on our own and our relationship with the Lord seems empty, that is when we need to get back to doing what the Lord gives us to do and our nets of blessings will be just as full.
Three times Peter denied Him, and three times He restored him. Three times He asked him if he loved Him and each time he gave him different commandments. “Feed my lambs”, “Tend my sheep”, and “Feed my sheep”. Tend means to shepherd, Lambs need to be feed. Sheep need to be guided. Peter would need to care for diverse people in different ways, and Christ had done with His disciples. Peter was restored and was the leader in the early church.
You can’t keep a God man down. You can’t keep a godly man down, and finally…
You can keep a good man down
The mistake that many people think is that all you have to do is be good and by doing so you earn your way to heaven. All you have to do is make sure your good out weighs your bad. You can be a good person; you don’t have to go to church. You can live a good life and how could a loving God send you to hell?
But it’s not about being good. There will be a lot of good people who die and go to hell.
Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, ’Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ’Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ’I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
It’s not about being good; it’s about a personal relationship with Christ. It’s not about a religion; it’s about a relation.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
I thought about King Agrippa, the one who appeared before Paul. Not much is known about him, but there is no recording of him being a wicked King, and we know that he wanted to release Paul. So I assume that he was a good King, a good person. And he said in Acts 26:28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian."
I would hate to think that I almost made it to heaven. Because to think you are good enough to make it to heaven is going to send you to hell just as fast as someone who knows that they are going there.
And as Paul pleaded to Agrippa and to others, I plead with you this morning as well. Acts 26:29 And Paul said, "I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains."
You can’t keep a God man down, because not only did He die for you, paying the sin dept that we have earned, but He lives for you as well. And the bible says that when He died, He rose again and He went to heaven to prepare a place just for you. And His desire is for all of us to enter into a personal relationship with Him.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
You can’t keep a godly man down, because God always seeks to restore that relationship.
But you can keep a good man down. And the only way to get up is to enter into a personal relationship with Him.
Let’s Pray
