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by Bob Fraley
Text: Luke 24:1-8 
Sermon in a Sentence: The truth is that the world goes not well, but the Lord has provided us with a spiritual ark to survive these last days.
Today is the last sermon in our Spiritual Adventure series, The Remarkable Revelation. I will be a little longer than normal as I want to finish strong and on a positive note.
It took me a while to find the exact word I wanted. “Disheartening” is what I settled on.
It means to take the very heart out of someone. It’s to weaken their spirit, to remove any element of courage.
“Dis-” as a prefix makes a word its opposite. So “courage” becomes “discourage.” “Hearten,” which is a really neat word, ends up as “dishearten.” 
That’s what the crucifixion of our Lord did to His followers. It was the ultimate disheartening situation. The next day was all black for His friends. Scripture records almost nothing about what went on in their lives, while the enemies of our Lord kept busy.
The end of Matthew 27 reads: The next day … the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. I have a feeling that stealing the body was the last thing in the world the disciples had in mind. What good would that do? Their world had just been shattered. They had no desire to prop it up by false means.
Without their leader, they were a scattered group of former disciples who just had their hearts ripped out. Three words were to change everything. Three short words! Spoken by “two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning.” That’s right from the Bible (Luke 24:4).
The text doesn’t say so, but it’s obvious that they were angels. They didn’t speak these words to the disciples, but rather to the women who came early on Sunday morning with spices to care for Jesus’ dead body. Those three powerful words were “He is risen!” “Dear ladies, Jesus isn’t here. Why look for the living among the dead? He is risen!” They were three words that would quickly change the ultimate disheartening situation into an occasion for great joy and excitement.
Remove the “dis-” prefix. Let “disheartening” once again be that delightful word “heartening.” “Discouragement” reverts to “encouragement,” or the infusing of courage. Potent words have the ability to totally change the way people think!
When Jesus was crucified, the spirit of the disciples was crushed. Seeing the success that Satan has had in our country in recent years, and learning that the possibility of a backslidden America fulfills every prophetic description that identifies the beast/superpower in Revelation 13, is also discouraging and disheartening. Yet this does fit the tactics used in the past by our spiritual enemy.
Satan’s plans have always been to wage his most fierce warfare to destroy anything God has raised up. That is the history of God’s people throughout the entire Bible beginning with Adam and Eve. It continued through the 2000-year history of Israel, the 2000-year history of the church, and with America being the center of Christianity in these last days, it is happening here.
I am a very patriotic person. I love America! I agonize over what has happened to the moral standards in our country. The hurt and pain from the many spiritual defeats that Christians have had in recent years is gut-wrenching at times. It hurts that much! And the moral values continue to deteriorate and it seems nothing—whether new church programs, government programs, education, counseling or anything else—is having any effect to help solve the problem.
End of Short Preview for Sermon #8 | 
